THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 
HENRY  E.  JACKSON 


THE   NEW   CHIVALRY  MEDAL   OF  HONOR 


THE 

NEW  CHIVALRY 

THE  STATEMENT  OF  A  MOVEMENT 
AMONG  MEN  AND  YOUNG  MEN  IN  THE 
DEFENSE  OF  HOME  AND  COUNTRY 


BY 

HENRY  E.  JACKSON 

Author  of  "Great  Pictures  as  Moral  Teachers,"  "Ben- 
jamin West,  his  life  and  work,"  "The  Legend 
of  the  Christmas  Rose,**  etc. 


HODDER  &  STOUGHTON 

NEW  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1914, 
BY  GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


•: 


PREFACE 

I  desire  to  express  here  my  deep  sense  of 
obligation  to  many  friends  for  the  constant 
stimulation  they  gave  me  in  the  performance 
of  a  most  difficult  task,  for  their  care  in  revis- 
ing proofs,  and  for  their  many  kindly  criticisms 
and  helpful  suggestions. 


3GI179 


"  THE  Problems  of  sex  will  never  be  solved  until 
the  sacredness  of  sex  is  recognized,  for  sex  is  vitally  and 
indissolubly  bound  up  with  the  two  greatest  facts  that 
you  and  I  know.  The  greatest  fact  of  the  organized 
world  around  us  is  life,  the  greatest  fact  of  the  spiritual 
world  into  which  we  lift  our  souls  is  love,  and  the 
beginnings  of  life  and  the  beginnings  of  love  are  in 
sex.  No  boy  or  girl  will  readily  understand  what  life 
means  except  as  he  has  some  clear,  wise  teaching  about 
sex;  no  boy  or  girl  will  fully  understand  what  love 
means  except  through  recognition  of  the  dignity  and 
worth  and  purity  of  the  fundamental  facts  and  powers 
of  sex." 

NORMAN  F.  COLEMAN. 


CONTENTS 

PART  I 

I  PAGE 

THE  AWAKENING  OF  SPRING 17 

OUR  GROUND  OF  HOPE 19 

SEX  A  KEY-FACT 21 

MENTAL  ATTITUDE  TO  SEX 22 

SEX  EDUCATION 23 

II 

REFORM  THE  MEN 24 

WEAKNESS  OF  THE  LAW 25 

No  APPEAL  TO  FEAR 26 

III 

AN  APPEAL  TO  HONOR 27 

TRAFFIC  IN  WOMEN 29 

A  CRIME  AGAINST  LOVE 31 

TURN  OFF  THE  SPIGOT 33 

CRIPPLED  SOLDIERS 34 

IV 

BUILDING  BATTLEMENTS  AROUND  YOUNG  MEN     .     .     .35 

THE  GRIP  OF  HABIT 36 

FREEDOM  THROUGH  KNOWLEDGE 37 

JESUS  ON  THE  SUBJECT  OF  SEX 39 

THE  SANCTITY  OF  THE  FAMILY 39 

A  CHALLENGE  TO  THE  CHURCH 40 

CHANGE  YOUR  NAME  OR  HONOR  IT 41 

THE  PROSTITUTE  A  PATRIOT 42 

THINKING  BEFORE  AND  NOT  AFTER 44 

WHEN  CHIVALRY  FAILS 46 


CONTENTS 

V  PAGE 

WHAT  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  MEANS 51 

THE  SINGLE  MORAL  STANDARD 53 

IGNORANCE  Is  SIN 54 

A  BETTER  CROP  OF  CHILDREN 56 

RACE  BETTERMENT 59 

KNIGHTS  AGAINST  "PIMPS" 62 

COMPROMISE  OF  PRINCIPLE  IMPOSSIBLE 63 

WAGES  AND  VICE 64 

THE  MEDAL  OF  HONOR 66 

A  BULL'S-EYE  LANTERN 66 

A  WORK  OF  ART 67 

A  BOY'S  PUBLIC  OPINION 69 

THE  HIGHEST  HEROISM 70 

TEN  TIMES  ONE  Is  TEN 72 

A  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 73 

VI 

A  PATRIOTIC  SERVICE 74 

THE  COUNTRY'S  FLAG        75 

THE  COUNTRY'S  GREAT  SEAL 75 

"OLD   GLORY" 76 

THE  NEW  CHIVALRY'S  MOTTO 78 

LINCOLN'S  BOYS 79 

A  KNIGHT'S  GUARDIAN  ANGEL 80 

THE  BREATH  OF  VIOLETS 81 

To  BE  ALIVE  HONORABLY 83 

PART  II 

I 

ARE  PARENTS  Too  SHY? 87 

CAN  EUGENICS  BE  TAUGHT?        88 

WHO  ARE  THE  BEST  TEACHERS? 90 

PUBLIC  SCHOOL  INSTRUCTION 91 

II 

PRIVATE   INSTRUCTION 92 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

SIMPLICITY  IN  ORGANIZATION 94 

START  FROM  WHERE  You  ARE 95 

PRACTICAL  EXPERIMENTS 97 

MARRIAGE  AND  THE  HOME 100 

THE  ART  OF  LIVING 101 

THE  RELIGION  OF  SEX 101 

POSITIVE  EUGENICS 103 

APPENDICES 

I    "THE  NAME  OF  OLD  GLORY" 107 

II    A  CLASSIFIED  LIST  OF  BOOKS no 

III  BOOKS  FOR  GENERAL  READING 112 

IV  BOOKS  OF  ROMANCE 114 

V    How  TO  BECOME  A  KNIGHT 118 

VI    THE  NEW  JERSEY  SOCIAL  HYGIENE  ASSOCIATION      .  121 


REVERSE    SIDE    OF    THE    NEW   CHIVALRY   MEDAL    OF   HONOR 


INTRODUCTION 

DURING  the  winter  of  1912-13  I  gave  to  the 
young  men  and  women  of  my  church  and  com- 
munity a  series  of  lectures  on  Dante's  love 
story,  "  The  New  Life/'  the  subjects  of  which 
were  "  Love  as  an  Ideal,"  "  Love  and  Chiv- 
alry," "  Love  and  Marriage,"  "  Can  Love  Sur- 
vive Marriage?  "  My  aim  was  to  state  some 
constructive  and  helpful  ideals  in  regard  to  love 
and  marriage. 

The  lectures  aroused  the  young  people  to 
such  enthusiasm  that  they  expressed  a  strong 
desire  to  make  some  practical  application  of 
their  newly-awakened  ideals.  I  realized  that 
to  stir  their  emotions  and  then  give  them  no 
outlet  in  action  would  result  in  a  real  injury, 
for,  as  Mazzini  says,  "  An  unacted  thought  is 


a  sin." 


To  meet  this  need  we  devised  a  movement 
called •"  The  New  Chivalry."  The  immediate 
response  of  thirty-five  of  my  boys  and  young 
men  gave  me  an  unexpected  shock.  Their  sin- 
cere desire  to  carry  out  these  ideals  and  their 
hunger  for  information  concerning  sex  questions 


H  INTRODUCTION 

revealed  the  neglect  from  which  they  were 
suffering.  Their  eager  response  to  and  sincere 
reverence  for  the  subject  pleased  but  humiliated 
me.  It  made  me  feel  guilty  for  my  previous 
failure  to  inform  them  about  a  question  which 
almost  more  than  any  other  concerns  their  happi- 
ness and  welfare. 

The  need  which  the  New  Chivalry  attempts 
to  meet  seems  so  real  and  universal,  and 
requests  for  information  about  the  movement 
have  been  so  numerous,  that  the  following 
brief  account  of  it  is  now  published  in  the  hope 
that  it  may  enlist  an  even  larger  number  of 
young  men  than  those  who  have  already  volun- 
teered. There  are  some  educational  methods, 
whose  value  can  be  discovered  only  by  experi- 
ment. This  is  one  of  them.  My  firm  faith  in 
the  natural  nobility  of  all  normal  young  men 
leads  me  to  think  they  will  respond  to  the  call  of 
the  New  Chivalry.  At  least  the  experience  with 
my  own  young  men  seems  abundantly  to  justify 
this  expectation.  The  New  Chivalry  makes  its 
appeal  to  older  men  as  well  as  to  young  men; 
for  it  is  difficult  to  say  who  need  it  most,  the 
fathers  or  the  sons.  It  seeks  to  enlist  both 
father  and  son  as  comrades  in  the  same  cause, 
which  vitally  concerns  both. 


INTRODUCTION  13 

In  dealing  with  the  "  Social  Evil "  the 
methods  of  direct  attack  through  force  and  law 
have  so  often  and  so  long  proved  futile  that  I 
am  fully  persuaded  the  time  has  come  for  us 
to  go  deeper  in  our  treatment  so  as  to  touch  and 
purify  the  central  springs  of  human  action.  To 
use  a  figure  of  Havelock  Ellis,  we  have  been 
working  to  cleanse  the  banks  of  the  stream, 
but  have  made  little  or  no  attempt  to  purify 
the  stream  itself. 

Right  thinking  seems  to  me  to  be  the  proper 
means  for  purifying  the  "  stream  itself."  Un- 
til there  be  correct  thought  there  cannot  be 
right  action,  and  when  there  is  correct  thought 
right  action  will  naturally  follow.  Freedom 
of  any  kind  can  be  acquired  only  through 
knowledge.  Right  thinking  is  the  citadel  of 
the  sex  question  and  it  is  useless  to  defend  the 
outposts  while  the  citadel  itself  is  in  danger. 
The  New  Chivalry  is  a  movement  for  educa- 
tion in  correct  thinking  about  sex  matters. 
With  respect  to  eugenic  ideals,  it  is  becoming 
increasingly  clear  that  information  alone  is  in- 
sufficient and  may  prove  harmful,  and  that  fear 
as  a  deterrent  is  a  weak  and  not  altogether  a 
worthy  motive.  It  seems  apparent  that  until 
the  sense  of  chivalry  is  awakened  in  the  heart 


i4  INTRODUCTION 

of  a  man,  and  his  internal  resources  are  de- 
veloped, he  is  not  much  of  a  man,  and  that  any 
dependence  placed  upon  him  is  doomed  to 
disappointment.  The  virtue  which  needs  al- 
ways to  be  guarded  is  scarcely  worth  the  senti- 
nel. A  nation's  walls  of  defense  are  built  of 
her  chivalrous  sons.  The  aim  of  the  New 
Chivalry  is  to  strengthen  America's  defenses. 

HENRY  E.  JACKSON. 

Upper  Montclair,  N.  J., 
October,  1914. 


GREAT   SEAL    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 


PART  I 
ADDRESSED  TO  YOUNG  MEN 


"Let  true  hands  pass  on 
an  unextinguished  torch  from  sire  to  son." 


THE  NEW   CHIVALRY 


i 


The  Awakening  of  Spring. 

IN  Robert  E.  Knowles'  novel,  "St.  Cuth- 
bert's,"  a  beautiful  young  girl  makes  to  her 
father  the  following  confession;  — "  Angus  and 
I  had  wandered  far  —  farther  than  we  thought. 
We  were  resting  on  a  grassy  knoll.  Angus  had 
been  speaking  of  his  mother,  and  he  said  that 
the  beauty  of  nature  always  made  his  heart  ache. 
Surely,  father,  there  is  nothing  so  lonesome  as 
beauty  when  the  heart's  lonesome !  Angus  and 
I  were  still  a  long  time  —  till  it  was  growing 
dusk ;  and  then  at  last  he  said,  *  How  lonely  all 
this  is  if  no  one  loves  you ! '  And  I  started  at 
his  tone,  and  when  my  eyes  met  his  I  went  down 
before  them,  for  they  caressed  me  so.  Father 
dear,  I  need  not  tell  you  all.  I  could  not  if  I 
would  —  no  girl  could.  I  know,  I  remember, 
oh,  I  remember  what  he  said,  and  no  one  else 
knows  but  me,  and  my  soul  trusted  him  and  he 

17 


1 8  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

took  me  into  the  sheltering  place  where  nobody 
but  God  could  see  my  soul's  surrender.  Father, 
he  kissed  me  —  on  the  lips  —  and  I  did  not 
believe  it;  for  just  a  moment  before  we  had  been 
listening  to  the  crickets  and  looking  at  the  sun, 
and  my  whole  soul  surged  hot  and  my  eyes  were 
closed  —  for  I  felt  him  coming  and  I  could  not 
speak  or  move.  And  I  don't  know  why,  but  I 
thought  of  the  sacrament  and  the  holy  wine,  and 
everything  was  holy  —  not  like  music,  but  like  a 
bell,  a  great  cathedral  bell  with  its  unstained 
voice.  And  father  (I  shall  feel  purer  when  I 
tell  you  this)  father,  that  very  moment  I  felt  a 
strange  new  life  in  my  breast  and  the  old  girlish 
life  was  gone  —  and  there  came  before  my 
closed  eyes  a  vision  of  another  just  like  Angus, 
white  and  soft  and  helpless  —  and  I  heard  its 
cry  —  and  my  heart  melted  in  me  with  the  great 
compassion.  And  I  knew  that  what  I  called 
love  was  really  life,  just  life.  And  I  felt  no 
shame  at  all,  but  a  great  pride  that  it  was  all  so 
holy  —  for  it  is  holy,  father,  and  no  one 
prompted  it  but  God." 

What  does  this  statement  mean  ?  Is  it  dream 
or  reality?  Is  it  poetry  or  fact?  The  true  an- 
swer seems  to  me  to  be  that  it  is  both.  It  is 
poetic  fact.  Poetry,  as  the  scientific  Aristotle 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  19 

long  ago  said,  is  more  true  than  history.  His- 
tory is  only  the  ordered  record  of  external  facts, 
but  poetry  is  their  inner  meaning.  This  confes- 
sion states  the  inner  meaning  of  the  sex-impulse. 
It  makes  impressive  its  natural  beauty  and  cre- 
ative power.  It  makes  clear  the  fact,  that  the 
physical  and  romantic  sides  of  love  are  riveted 
together;  that  they  are  two  sides  of  one  and  the 
same  shield;  that  it  is  as  impossible  for  one  to 
exist  without  the  other,  as  it  is  for  a  shield  to 
have  only  one  side,  although  their  union  is  not 
mechanical,  as  in  a  shield,  but  far  more  intimate 
and  vital,  as  in  a  living  thing. 

Our  Ground  of  Hope. 

The  awakening  of  young  men  and  women  to 
a  consciousness  of  the  fact  of  sex  is  like  the 
awakening  of  spring  on  an  April  morning.  It 
is  the  time  when  new  hope  is  born;  when  the 
fires  of  new  ambition  are  lighted  up ;  when  na- 
ture is  clothed  with  a  new  garment  of  beauty 
and  wonder;  when  a  tender  and  chivalrous  re- 
gard for  women  dominates  a  young  man's  heart; 
when  his  admiration  for  heroic  men  moulds  his 
ideals.  He  demands  an  epic  life.  He  dreams 
of  himself  starting  on  an  open  road  towards  his 
new  goal,  with  the  dew  of  early  morning  on  his 


20  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

brow,  his  warm  blood  surging  with  living  fire 
through  his  veins,  and  his  heart  beating  to  the 
music  of  a  new  desire  for  high  and  difficult  deeds. 
The  man,  who  has  outgrown  and  forgotten  his 
youth,  will,  no  doubt,  think  that  the  language, 
used  in  the  fore-going  statement,  is  over-en- 
thusiastic. But  every  normal  young  man  knows 
well  enough  that  no  other  kind  of  language 
would  suggest  the  nature  of  his  newly-awakened 
springtime  emotions.  His  dreams,  of  course, 
he  keeps,  as  a  carefully-guarded  secret,  in  his 
own  heart,  and  would  never  dare  to  put  them 
into  words  at  all.  The  only  youth,  so  far  as  I 
know,  who  ever  ventured  to  make  a  complete 
confession  of  them,  is  Dante.  He  called  his 
confession, — "  The  New  Life,"  because  to  him 
the  awakening  of  spring  meant  a  completely  new 
life  both  for  mind  and  heart.  The  re-birth  of 
the  world  through  love  is  an  old  but  ever-new 
story,  repeated  afresh  in  the  heart  of  every  boy 
and  girl,  just  as  if  it  had  never  occurred  in  the 
world  before.  This  fact  is  our  guiding  principle 
in  all  the  discussions  which  follow.  For  I  am 
fully  persuaded  that  the  starting  point  in  all 
questions  relating  to  sex,  and  our  ground  of  hope 
in  every  effort  to  direct  its  use,  safeguard  it 
from  abuse  and  fix  its  proper  place  in  our 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  21 

thought  and  life,  is  the  significant  fact  that,  for 
every  normal  boy  and  girl,  the  awakening  of 
sex-life  is  associated,  not  with  anything  degrad- 
ing, but  with  everything  pure,  beautiful,  and 
chivalrous.  It  puts  a  new  window  into  a  young 
man's  heart,  throws  open  to  him  the  gates  of  a 
new  life,  and  makes  of  him  a  poet  and  a  hero. 
To  keep  these  gates  open  is  the  aim  of  the  New 
Chivalry  movement. 

Sex  a  Key-fact. 

It  seems  obvious  that  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  most  significant  of  all  the  facts 
of  life  is  the  fact  of  sex.  Like  the  fact  of 
hunger,  it  is  one  of  the  earliest,  latest,  and 
strongest  of  passions  in  human  nature.  Doubt- 
less they  are  right  who  believe  that  sex  is  the 
explanation  of  the  love  of  beauty,  and  the  in- 
spiration of  its  expression  in  art.  It  is  a  mas- 
ter passion.  God  made  it  to  be  so  in  order  to 
serve  a  high  purpose.  If  it  were  used  only  for 
its  designed  purpose,  it  would  constitute  no  prob- 
lem and  cause  no  trouble.  It  occasions  no  dif- 
ficulty among  dumb  animals.  It  is  because  men 
are  not  dumb  animals,  that  they  have  diverted 
the  sex  impulse  from  its  evident  design  to  cruel 
and  selfish  ends.  Since  man  is  rational,  sex 


22  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

can  never  be  an  exclusively  natural  impulse  in 
him  as  it  is  in  the  animal.  His  sex  desire,  when 
his  relation  to  a  woman  ceases  to  be  general 
and  becomes  particular,  must  always  originate  in 
either  love  or  lust. 

Mental  Attitude  to  Sex. 

It  is  because  man  can  never  be  on  a  level,  but 
must  be  either  above  or  below  the  innocent 
brute,  that  he  should  take  a  conscious  attitude  in 
regard  to  the  fact  of  sex.  A  man's  mental  atti- 
tude to  sex  is  the  key  to  his  right  or  wrong  use  of 
it.  The  first  essential  step  for  progress,  is  to 
replace  the  very  general  mental  attitude  of 
secrecy,  disrespect,  shame,  and  irreverence  to- 
wards sex  and  procreation,  and  to  substitute  for 
it  a  mental  attitude,  which  regards  all  aspects 
of  sex  as  inherently  noble  and  beautiful;  which 
esteems  fatherhood  to  be  as  worthy  as  mother- 
hood; which  believes  the  birth  of  every  child 
conceived  in  love  to  be  an  immaculate  birth; 
which  appreciates  the  profound  truth  in 
Thoreau's  saying  that  "  for  him  to  whom  sex 
is  impure  there  are  no  flowers  in  Nature." 
Each  man  must  decide  for  himself  whether  he 
will  be  better  or  worse  than  a  brute.  The  fact 
that  men  are  constantly  falling  below  the  level 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  23 

of  the  brute  is  what  creates  the  "  social  evil." 
The  design  of  the  New  Chivalry  is  to  create 
a  mental  attitude  which  will  prevent  men  from 
falling  below  this  level  and  assist  them  to  rise 
above  it.  Its  desire  is  to  replace  cruelty  and 
selfishness  by  a  spirit  of  chivalry.  Its  design 
is  to  assist  the  handsome  side  of  a  man  to  domi- 
nate. 

Sex  Education. 

The  New  Chivalry  makes  its  appeal  to  all  men 
and  to  all  boys  after  they  become  fourteen  years 
old,  the  average  age  for  the  beginning  of 
adolescence.  When  the  Roman  boy  arrived 
at  fourteen  he  assumed  the  distinctive  garment 
of  the  Roman  citizen,  the  toga  virilis,  in  token 
of  manhood  and  citizenship.  Of  course  a 
great  deal  of  instruction  is  needed  long  before 
the  age  of  fourteen.  But  this  can  best  be  given 
in  the  home  and  the  school.  Such  instruction 
will  be  in  the  nature  of  partial  information  and 
warning.  It  need  only  be  partial,  but  it  ought 
never  to  be  false,  as  it  so  often  is.  In  the  home 
it  can  be  given  better  by  the  mother  than  by  the 
father,  at  least  for  the  present,  because  a 
woman's  mental  attitude  to  sex  facts  gives  her 
a  better  equipment  for  the  task.  In  the  school 


24  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

the  instruction  will  be  along  the  line  of  nature 
studies,  and  will  show  the  child  how  natural  and 
necessary  is  the  sex  fact  in  birds,  flowers  and 
animals.  This  is  a  fine  preparation  but  it 
is  only  a  preparation.  When  a  boy  reaches 
fourteen  and  the  creative  power  of  sex  becomes 
alive  in  his  own  body,  causing  him  many  kinds 
of  mental  and  physical  disturbances,  then  the 
problem  becomes  a  different  matter.  He  needs 
a  new  kind  of  information,  and  still  more  a  new 
kind  of  self-control,  which  calls  for  a  newer  and 
larger  set  of  motives.  It  is  to  meet  the  larger 
need  of  boys  over  fourteen  that  the  New 
Chivalry  was  planned. 

II 

Reform  the  Men. 

THE  New  Chivalry  is  addressed  especially  to 
men  because  men  are  the  great  offenders  against 
sex  chivalry.  Man  is  the  defendant  in  this 
"  great  law-suit,"  as  Margaret  Fuller  called  it. 
No  one  will  attempt  to  deny  that  the  larger  part 
of  sex  immorality  is  due  to  man's  initiative. 
Most  of  the  shame  and  suffering  falls  upon  the 
woman,  most  of  the  responsibility  rests  with  the 
man.  Adam  set  an  unchivalrous  example  in 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  25 

this  respect  which  has  been  faithfully  followed 
ever  since.  Man  makes  the  trouble  and  woman 
is  made  the  victim.  If  man  did  not  create  the 
demand,  there  would  be  no  need  for  traffic  in 
women.  The  only  real  cure  therefore  for  the 
social  evil  is  to  decrease  the  demand.  There 
can  never  be  any  escape  from  the  position  of 
Dr.  Napheys,  that  the  key  to  the  problem  lies 
in  three  words  — "  Reform  the  men."  It  may 
be  a  difficult  key  to  operate,  but  no  other  fits  the 
lock. 

Weakness  of  the  Law. 

What  needs  to  be  done  seems  apparent. 
How  to  do  it  is  the  difficult  question.  How  can 
man  be  reformed  in  this  respect?  Certainly 
not  by  law.  While  the  effort  to  enact  a  good 
law  is  a  form  of  education  and  renders  a  needed 
service,  it  is  far  wiser  to  spend  our  main 
strength  in  making  good  men  than  in  making 
good  laws.  Laws  can  do  much  to  protect  a 
community,  but  it  needs  to  be  clearly  seen  that 
laws  can  never  create  anything.  They  can 
regulate  abuses,  but  can  never  create  the  good. 
It  is  not  possible  to  eradicate  selfish  indulgence 
from  men's  hearts  by  law.  If  a  law  suppresses 
the  operation  of  greed  in  one  place  to-day,  it 


26  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

will  break  out  in  another  place  to-morrow 
wherever  and  whenever  greed  exists  in  the 
heart.  Moreover  the  partial  or  negative  regu- 
lation of  an  evil  by  law  becomes  at  once  a 
dead  letter  unless  supported  by  public  senti- 
ment. At  its  best  a  law  is  only  an  attempt  at 
the  temporary  suppression  of  an  evil,  never  a 
cure  for  it.  Law  treats  only  the  symptoms, 
not  the  disease.  The  disease  lies  far  back 
of  the  overt  act.  It  lies  in  the  mind  and 
heart. 

No  Appeal  to  Fear. 

Can  the  reform  be  effected  by  an  appeal  to 
fear?  It  never  has  been.  The  obvious  reason 
is  that  it  is  essentially  a  weak  appeal.  A  young 
man  is  not  afraid.  Threaten  him  with  punish- 
ment or  with  a  disease  which  he  may  or  may  not 
catch,  and  he  will  answer  that  he  is  willing  to 
take  risks.  He  is  more  afraid  of  being  thought 
afraid  than  he  is  of  punishment.  It  is  the  testi- 
mony of  history  that  a  threat  of  punishment 
lacks  the  power  to  reform  human  life.  It  is 
most  significant  that  the  ages  which  have  been 
marked  by  the  greatest  severity  in  their  penal 
codes  have  always  been  the  ages  when  crime 
was  most  rampant.  The  appeal  to  fear  is  an 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  27 

appeal  to  the  weakest  of  all  motives.  It  is 
weak  because  it  is  a  low  motive.  To  ask  a 
young  man  to  avoid  sexual  immorality  merely 
to  avoid  suffering  from  a  venereal  disease,  is  a 
motive  too  small  and  too  selfish  to  have  much 
weight  with  him.  It  is  like  saying  — "  Don't 
steal,  because  if  you  do  you  may  get  caught." 
Sexual  immorality  is  a  sin  whether  a  disease 
follows  it  or  not.  The  fear  of  disease  reduces 
the  question  to  a  merely  physical  basis,  which 
is  not  a  big  enough  platform  to  ask  any  young 
man  to  stand  upon.  It  has,  therefore,  been 
ineffective  to  move  him.  Prudential  warnings 
are  weak  safeguards  against  commanding  ap- 
petites. 


Ill 


An  Appeal  to  Honor. 

IT  seems  clear  that  the  only  sure  and  perma- 
nent cure  for  the  "  social  evil  "  is  the  living  spirit 
of  chivalry  in  the  heart.  The  only  power 
strong  enough  to  conquer  sexual  temptations 
is  the  expulsive  power  of  a  new  affection,  such 
as  a  boy's  love  for  his  mother,  or  his  reverence 
for  the  laws  of  life,  which  are  the  laws  of  God. 
Considered  as  expulsive  new  affections,  athletics, 


28  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

friendships,  good  books,  intellectual  interests, 
render  invaluable  services. 

The  reason  why  men  commit  sex  sins  is  be- 
cause it  gives  them  pleasure,  or  because  they 
think  it  does.  The  sufficient  reason  for  not 
committing  them  is  because  there  is  a  higher 
pleasure  which  they  thereby  miss.  They  are  be- 
ing cheated  and  don't  know  it.  This  is  doubt- 
less the  only  sufficient  reason,  for  unless  such  a 
man  is  persuaded  that  virtue  yields  more  pleas- 
ure than  does  vice,  our  prohibitions  will  be  futile. 
One  of  the  great  elements  of  wisdom  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  lies  in  the  fact  that  he  substi- 
tuted "  thou  shalts  "  for  "  thou  shalt  nots." 

In  his  "  Call  of  the  Twentieth  Century  "  to 
young  men,  David  Starr  Jordan  makes  effective 
use  of  Kipling's  fable  of  Parenness,  in  which  the 
demon  appears  before  the  clerk  in  the  Indian 
service.  It  asks  him  to  surrender  three  things 
in  succession;  his  trust  in  man,  his  faith  in 
woman,  and  the  hopes  and  ambitions  of  his 
childhood.  When  these  are  given  up,  in  his  life 
of  dissipation,  the  demon  leaves  him  in  ex- 
change a  little  crust  of  dry  bread.  As  soon  as 
a  young  man  learns,  not  from  experience  but 
from  observation,  that  a  crust  of  dry  bread  — 
that  is,  bare  existence  without  joy  —  is  a  pitiably 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  29 

poor  substitute  for  the  rich  pleasures  of  virtue, 
he  will  be  in  no  need  of  external  prohibitions  to 
regulate  his  conduct.  He  knows  where  the  real 
values  lie  and  he  will  never  prefer  the  lower  to 
the  higher. 

The  spirit  of  chivalry  means  that  a  man  will 
measure  and  judge  his  sexual  immorality  in 
terms  of  the  sorrow  it  brings  upon  others. 
Charles  W.  Eliot  spoke  from  a  large  knowledge 
of  life  when  he  said  that  his  experience  at  Har- 
vard taught  him  that  the  only  way  to  save  a 
bad  young  man  is  to  bring  to  bear  on  him  the 
influence  of  some  one  whom  he  loves,  and  make 
him  face  his  evil  deeds  in  terms  of  what  they 
mean  in  sorrow  to  the  loved  one.  Is  not  this 
the  key-principle  to  any  effective  reform? 
How  is  it  possible  to  understand  any  act  until 
we  see  it  in  its  relation  to  other  people?  Can 
there  be  any  such  thing  as  individual  goodness 
or  badness?  To  look  at  every  act  in  its  rela- 
tionship to  others,  in  the  terms  of  what  it  means 
in  joy  or  sorrow  to  others,  is  the  only  way  to 
see  goodness  or  badness  as  they  actually  are. 

Traffic  in  Women. 

What  are  some  of  the  terms  in  which  sexual 
immorality  ought  to  be  stated?     One  of  the 


30  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

terms  that  is  familiar  in  the  present  agitation 
is  "  traffic  in  women."  It  is  said  by  responsible 
men,  who  have  special  opportunities  for  ac- 
curate knowledge,  that  250,000  women  and 
girls  are  engaged  in  the  business  of  prostitution 
in  the  United  States,  and  that  25,000  young 
women  and  girls  are  annually  procured  for  this 
traffic.  And  that  in  New  York  City  alone  there 
are  26,000  prostitutes,  who  support  6,100  men 
by  their  earnings,  and  that  $57,000,000  is  the 
annual  income  from  this  business.  This  consti- 
tutes a  slavery  far  more  degrading  than  the  sale 
of  negro  labor  which  brought  on  the  Civil  War. 
The  average  time  a  white  slave  lasts  after  be- 
ginning her  ruinous  career  is  ten  years.  Her 
life  is  one  of  such  shame,  cruelty,  suffering, 
disease  and  corroding  degradation  that  it  can- 
not be  described  in  spoken  words.  If  one  would 
know  something  of  its  nature  let  him  read 
such  books  as  "  Peach  Bloom "  by  North- 
rup  Morse,  and  "  My  Little  Sister  "  by  Eliza- 
beth Robins.  Lecky  says,  "  She  is  the  most 
mournful  and  most  fearful  figure  in  history." 
Over  her  life  are  written  the  words  which 
Dante  saw  written  over  the  gate  of  Hell  — 
"  Abandon  hope  all  ye  who  enter  here."  Any 
man  who  contributes  directly  or  indirectly  to 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  31 

such  slavery  is  responsible  for  the  blackest  stain 
upon  our  Christian  civilization.  Every  pros- 
titute is  somebody's  sister  or  somebody's  daugh- 
ter, and  the  man  who  views  his  act  of  lawless 
sexual  indulgence  in  the  light  of  the  untold 
tragedy  to  somebody  else's  sister  or  daughter 
must  recoil  from  his  act  in  horror,  if  he  has  any 
spark  of  chivalry  in  his  heart. 

A  Crime  Against  Love. 

Another  term  in  which  to  state  sexual  immor- 
ality is  the  cruel  injustice  which  it  frequently 
works  to  a  man's  own  wife  and  children.  A 
man  who  communicates  to  his  wife  one  of  the 
two  venereal  diseases,  Syphilis  or  Gonorrhea, 
often  causes  her  life-long  suffering,  and  very 
often  a  sterility  which  robs  her  of  her  natural 
right  to  the  joys  of  motherhood.  He  also  in- 
flicts upon  his  own  child  the  possibilities  of 
weakness  and  disease,  or  early  death,  and 
sometimes  of  blindness  and  insanity.  The  ex- 
tent to  which  the  innocent  are  made  to  suffer 
through  such  infection  is  truly  terrible.  Prince 
Morrow,  of  the  New  York  Hospital,  states  that 
three-fifths  of  the  married  women  who  come  to 
the  hospital  for  pelvic  troubles  have  been  in- 
fected by  their  husbands.  By  a  careful  calcula- 


32  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

tion  it  is  estimated  that  one  man  in  every  seven 
is  himself  infected  by  a  venereal  disease.  This  is 
a  very  frightful  fact,  if  true.  I  do  not  stand 
for  any  of  the  preceding  figures  which  of  course 
are  not  verifiable.  Some  investigations,  how- 
ever, indicate  that  they  are  too  low.  A  recent 
investigation  in  one  of  our  western  institutions 
disclosed  the  fact  that  among  332  students,  only 
13  failed  to  admit  impurity  of  life,  either  per- 
sonal or  social.  I  have  quoted  figures  to  indi- 
cate a  condition  which  seriously  threatens  the 
welfare  of  the  republic.  The  American  Medi- 
cal Journal  recalls  the  fact  that  a  Yale  man  left 
$100,000  for  the  discovery  of  a  cure  for  tuber- 
culosis; Rockefeller  donated  a  million  to  ex- 
terminate the  hook-worm;  George  Crocker  left 
one  and  a  half  million  for  any  one  who  would 
find  a  cure  for  cancer.  Then  the  medical  journal 
adds  that  tuberculosis,  hook-worm  and  cancer 
combined  do  not  cause  half  the  suffering  due 
to  the  two  venereal  diseases  of  syphilis  and 
gonorrhea.  If  anyone  wants  vividly  to  realize 
the  tragedy  of  this  cruel  injustice  let  him  read 
Brieux's  drama  "  Damaged  Goods."  Dante 
says  the  rivers  of  the  Inferno  are  made  of  the 
tears  we  cause  others  to  shed.  A  man  who  in- 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  33 

fects  an  innocent  child  or  his  wife  not  only  com- 
pels her  to  increase  the  volume  of  the  infernal 
rivers  of  tears,  but  is  himself  drowned  in  the 
same  bitter  waters.  Any  man  with  a  living  con- 
science, who  faces  the  fact  of  a  possible  child  of 
his  own,  born  to  disease  or  blindness  or  early 
death  by  his  own  act  of  folly  and  selfishness, 
must  suffer  the  torments  of  a  present  Hell,  than 
which  there  will  be  no  worse  hell  hereafter. 

Turn  Off  the  Spigot. 

That  the  average  community  has  done  so 
little  to  protect  itself  against  these  enemies  at 
its  gate  seems  little  short  of  a  kind  of  insanity. 
The  test  of  sanity  used  in  some  asylums  is  to 
take  the  patient  to  a  trough  partially  filled  with 
water,  and  into  which  an  open  spigot  pours  new 
supplies  of  water.  The  patient  is  asked  to  bail 
the  water  out  of  the  trough.  If  he  attempts  to 
do  so  without  first  turning  off  the  flow,  he  is  re- 
garded as  insane,  and  properly  so.  That  a 
civilized  community  which  regards  itself  as  sane 
should  spend  enormous  sums  of  money  in  caring 
for  its  insane  and  degenerates,  and  yet  make 
little  effort  to  turn  off  the  supply  of  preventable 
insanity  and  degeneracy,  is  hard  to  understand. 


34  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

That  those  who  attempt  to  close  the  spigot 
should  be  blocked  in  their  efforts  is  still  harder 
to  understand. 

Crippled  Soldiers. 

Another  term  in  which  to  realize  the  results  of 
sexual  immorality  is  unfitness  for  life's  work.  I 
do  not  here  refer  to  the  diseases  which  weaken 
and  corrupt  a  man's  body.  That  these  crip- 
ple him  for  effective  work  is  too  obvious  to 
need  stating.  I  mean  that  the  man  who  squan- 
ders his  manhood  and  wastes  his  strength  at 
at  every  way-side  inn  unfits  himself  to  be  an 
efficient  citizen  of  the  Republic  and  to  play  the 
part  that  is  expected  of  him.  Every  man  ought 
to  keep  himself  well,  not  for  his  own  sake  alone, 
but  for  the  sake  of  his  country.  There  is  a  com- 
mon and  persistent  heresy  to  the  effect  that  fre- 
quent sexual  indulgence  is  necessary  to  a  man's 
health.  If  the  issues  involved  in  this  position 
were  not  so  serious,  it  would  be  most  amusing. 
The  only  answer  that  needs  to  be  made  to  it  is 
that  men  believe  this  because  they  want  to  be- 
lieve it.  This  is  their  only  honest  excuse  for 
self-indulgence,  when  they  find  it  embarrassing 
to  excuse  themselves  on  more  self-evident 
grounds.  It  seems  that  men  would  try  to  prove 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  35 

that  two  and  two  make  five,  if  it  were  to  their 
selfish  interest  to  do  so.  Any  man  who  has 
enough  sense  of  humor  to  laugh  at  himself  could 
never  believe  that  frequent  sexual  indulgence  is 
good  for  his  health,  when  that  position  has  been 
scientifically  demonstrated  to  be  untrue.  Vigor 
of  body,  strength  of  mind,  and  sane  spirituality 
are  not  possible  for  those  who  exhaust  them- 
selves through  sex  dissipation.  But,  granting 
for  the  moment  that  it  is  good  for  his  health,  has 
man  sunk  so  low  that  he  regards  physical  com- 
fort as  the  chief  issue  of  his  life  to  be  considered  ? 
Does  he  value  a  physical  pleasure  so  highly  that 
he  is  willing  to  buy  it  at  the  price  of  chains  and 
slavery  for  some  one  else?  Who  gave  to  him 
the  right  to  secure  his  personal  advantage  by 
destroying  the  bodies  and  souls  of  others? 

IV 

Building  Battlements  around  Young  Men. 

THESE  then  are  some  of  the  terms  in  which 
sexual  immorality  must  be  stated,  if  we  want 
to  state  it  as  it  is.  The  essence  of  Christian 
Chivalry  is  to  view  every  deed  in  the  light  of  its 
relations  to  other  people.  But  does  not  the 
knowledge  of  the  effects  of  sexual  immorality 


36  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

come  to  all  men  sooner  or  later?  Why  should 
we  present  these  facts  to  young  men  ?  Why  not 
let  men  in  middle  life  find  them  out  for  them- 
selves? It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  married 
men  of  middle  life  are  most  guilty  of  unchiv- 
alrous  conduct,  and  that  young  unmarried  men 
are  naturally  more  chaste  and  chivalrous. 
This  is  the  very  reason  why  these  facts  ought 
to  be  given  to  young  men.  The  facts  come  to 
men  in  middle  life  when  it  is  too  late  for  the 
facts  to  be  of  much  value.  Their  minds  are 
already  fixed  and  their  conduct  is  dictated  by 
selfishness.  It  is  an  appalling  fact  that  a  group 
of  men  in  London,  who  subscribed  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  pounds  for  the  relief  of  starvation 
in  India,  would  not  give  a  sixpence  to  relieve  the 
anguish  of  80,000  outcast  women  and  girls  of 
the  middle  and  lower  classes  in  London.  They 
were  generous  men  in  other  respects,  but 
brutally  cruel  in  this  one  relationship  of  life. 

The  Grip  of  Habit. 

The  only  explanation  of  this  strange  indiffer- 
ence is  the  fact  that  men's  minds  have  become 
so  hardened  that  they  regard  the  tragedy  of 
ruined  women  from  a  selfish  standpoint.  To  try 
to  change  that  fixed  attitude  in  older  men  is  like 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  37 

trying  to  lock  the  stable  door  after  the  horse  is 
stolen.  It  is  too  late.  After  the  spirit  of  selfish- 
ness has  ruled  a  man  for  ten  years,  it  is  difficult 
to  replace  it  with  the  spirit  of  chivalry.  The 
only  sane  plan  seems  to  be  to  instill  in  the  mind 
of  the  young  man  the  spirit  of  chivalry  before  his 
mind  becomes  closed  to  it.  The  only  wise  and 
effective  method  is  education  in  right  ideals,  and 
if  we  want  to  win  a  man  to  them,  we  must  catch 
him  young.  The  remedy  must  be  preventive 
if  it  is  to  be  fundamental.  (A  fine  statement  of 
the  necessity  for  preventive  education  is  found 
in  the  book,  "  Training  of  the  Young  in  Laws 
of  Sex,"  by  Rev.  The  Hon.  E.  Lyttleton,  Head 
Master  of  Eton  College.) 

Freedom  through  Knowledge. 

Our  salvation  along  all  lines  comes  through 
knowledge.  "  Ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the 
truth  shall  make  you  free."  Under  the  term 
knowledge,  I  include  not  only  the  facts  but  also 
the  motives  strong  enough  to  make  the  facts  ef- 
fective. No  fact  is  really  known  until  it  is  a  felt 
fact  —  that  is,  until  it  operates.  There  is  no 
doubt  every  boy  will  sooner  or  later  acquire 
in  some  way  a  knowledge  of  sex  —  usually  in  the 
wrong  way.  Therefore,  it  seems  too  obvious 


38  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

to  need  stating  that  he  ought  to  be  given  this 
knowledge  in  the  right  way,  at  a  time  when  it 
will  be  of  most  value  to  him.  Therefore  in 
starting  the  New  Chivalry  I  make  my  appeal  to 
young  men  and  boys  fourteen  years  old  and 
over.  The  largest  results  are  to  be  expected 
from  them.  The  strength  of  youth  lies  in  the 
purity  of  its  ideals  and  the  warmth  of  its  en- 
thusiasm. It  is  not  without  significance  that  the 
Knight  of  Arthur's  Court  who  succeeded  in 
finding  the  Holy  Grail  was  Galahad,  the 
youngest  Knight  of  the  Round  Table.  //  is  an 
illuminating  fact  that  it  is  not  to  the  cautious, 
calculating  men  of  experience,  but  to  the  vision- 
seeing,  chivalrous  youth,  who  have  not  yet  ex- 
changed their  ideals  for  their  comforts,  that 
the  great  moral  movements  of  history  owe  their 
greatest  debt.  If  older  men  can  be  touched  by 
a  spirit  of  chivalry,  they  can  doubtless  best1  be 
reached  through  their  sons.  The  sense  of 
honor  will  lead  a  father  to  see  that  he  himself 
ought  to  do  what  he  wants  his  son  to  do.  If 
sons  can  persuade  their  fathers  to  espouse  the 
New  Chivalry  it  will  be  a  fresh  demonstration 
of  the  truth  of  a  favorite  principle  of  Jesus, 
that  "  a  little  child  shall  lead  them." 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  39 

Jesus  on  the  Subject  of  Sex. 

The  New  Chivalry  reduces  to  practice  one  of 
the  chief  and  obvious  principles  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  The  conception  of  mankind  as 
one,  the  conception  of  love  for  one's  fellows,  is 
one  of  the  two  pillars  on  which  Jesus  built  the 
Christian  religion.  The  social  evil  is  a  cruel 
violation  of  this  principle.  Jesus  dwelt  upon  it 
with  reiterated  emphasis.  There  were  some 
questions  he  intentionally  avoided,  but  this  was 
not  one  of  them.  He  recognized  no  double 
moral  standard.  When  the  Pharisees  brought 
to  him  a  fallen  woman,  he  asked,  where  is  the 
fallen  man.  He  applied  the  same  principle  to 
men  and  women  alike,  although  he  placed  the 
chief  responsibility  on  the  man. 

The  Sanctity  of  the  Family. 

To  Jesus  the  social  evil  is  the  most  unsocial 
of  sins,  for  it  not  only  injures  the  individual,  but 
strikes  a  blow  at  the  divinest  of  social  institu- 
tions, the  family,  which  is  older  than  the  church 
or  state  and  more  important  than  either.  Jesus 
goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  man  of  impure 
thought  commits  adultery  in  his  heart.  This 
is  not  a  sentimental  ideal  but  a  scientific  fact. 


4o  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

He  saw  with  keen  insight  that  love's  arch-enemy 
is  lust.  He  also  saw  that  the  seat  of  lust  is  not 
in  the  body,  but  in  the  mind.  Indeed  the  body 
sets  limits  to  lust,  for  self-indulgence  soon  ex- 
hausts physical  strength,  but  there  is  no  limit 
to  the  imagination.  Dante  accurately  repre- 
sented the  thought  of  Jesus  when,  in  his  In- 
ferno, he  made  the  punishment  of  the  lustful 
to  consist  in  the  continuance  of  their  bodily  lust 
in  their  disembodied  state  and  the  resultant 
double  distress  of  their  spirits  unaccompanied 
by  bodies  through  which  to  give  it  vent.  With 
Jesus  the  impure  thought  is  the  primary  sin. 
He  maintains  this  position  because  the  impure 
thought  is  the  cause  of  the  overt  act  and  leads 
to  it,  and  because  nothing  so  corrodes  the  char- 
acter as  impure  sexual  thoughts. 

A  Challenge  to  the  Church. 

It  is  evident  that  the  position  of  Jesus  was  two 
thousand  years  ahead  of  his  day.  The  world  is 
only  beginning  to  see  the  wisdom  and  sanity  of 
his  teaching  on  social  purity.  The  Church  for 
the  most  part  has  been  silent  about  it.  She  al- 
most never  preaches  on  it.  The  double  stand- 
ard of  morality,  and  the  term  "  abandoned 
women,'*  are  a  crowning  disgrace  to  the  Chris- 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  41 

tian  religion  and  represent  an  attitude  among 
Christian  men  and  women  which  is  diametri- 
cally opposed  to  the  principles  of  Christianity. 
The  social  evil  violates  so  many  of  its  funda- 
mental principles  —  the  law  of  kindness,  the 
law  of  justice,  the  law  of  respect  for  another's 
person  —  that  for  the  church  to  be  silent  about 
it  is  not  a  compromise  on  a  doubtful  question, 
but  the  betrayal  of  a  cause.  If  the  Christian 
laws  of  chastity  and  self-control  are  intended 
only  to  be  polite  ornaments  instead  of  guiding 
principles,  it  would  be  more  honorable  for  the 
church  frankly  to  say  so.  Her  silence  on  the 
most  puzzling  of  all  difficulties  to  a  boy  has  led 
thousands  of  boys  later  in  li'fe  to  conclude  that 
the  teachings  of  Jesus  were  intended  only  to  be 
ornamental  and  to  treat  them  as  such. 

Change  Your  Name  or  Honor  It. 

Investigators  maintain  that  ninety-five  per 
cent,  of  all  men  have  violated  the  single  moral 
standard.  It  may  be  that  this  figure  cannot 
be  estimated  accurately,  and  is  too  high,  but  no 
>  one  will  deny  that  it  is  appalling.  There  are 
fourteen  and  a  quarter  millions  of  male  mem- 
bers over  twelve  years  of  age  in  all  the  Chris- 
tian churches  of  the  United  States,  a  num- 


42  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

ber  equal  to  all  the  votes  cast  in  the  last  presi- 
dential election.  If  it  is  only  approximately 
true  that  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the  men  are 
guilty  of  sexual  immorality,  then  a  very  large 
proportion  of  male  church  members  must  be  in- 
cluded among  this  number.  A  man  is  not  to  be 
blamed  if  he  cannot  honestly  believe  in  the 
Christian  religion,  but  he  is  to  be  blamed  if  he 
professes  to  believe  in  a  principle,  and  then  vio- 
lates it.  A  man  ought  either  to  honor  the 
Christian  name  or  give  it  up.  Any  man  who 
deliberately  and  regularly  violates  the  Chris- 
tian principle  of  sex  morality,  which  Jesus  re- 
garded as  fundamental,  has  a  very  doubtful 
right  to  the  name  Christian.  Certainly  the 
church  would  be  stronger  if  he  were  out- 
side its  membership.  Let  us  either  lower  the 
Christian  ideal  of  sex  purity  or  try  to  fulfill  it. 
If  the  principles  of  Jesus  are  intended  only  to 
be  a  polite  fringe  to  this  ideal,  let  us  frankly 
avow  it.  By  such  an  avowal  the  church  would 
gain  at  least  something.  It  would  save  the  only 
thing  left  to  be  saved  from  the  failure  of  its 
ideal ;  that  is,  its  own  honesty. 

The  Prostitute  a  Patriot. 
A  man  can  not  always  reach  his  ideal,  but 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  43 

he  can  at  least  be  honest.  If  the  prostitute 
protects  good  women  from  attack,  if  she  is  the 
high  priestess  of  humanity,  as  Lecky  calls  her, 
sacrificing  herself  for  the  good  of  the  commu- 
nity, then  in  honest  recognition  of  her  difficult 
service,  we  ought  to  hold  her  in  honor,  deco- 
rate her  with  the  American  flag,  treat  her  as  a 
patriot,  and  reverence  her  as  a  martyr  in  a  good 
cause.  If  we  cannot  go  so  far  as  this  we  might 
at  least  give  her  decent  protection  in  her  work, 
as  we  do  other  workers,  since  we  consider  her 
work  necessary  for  the  country's  good.  The 
time  has  come  for  us  to  be  honest  on  this  vital 
question.  It  was  because,  as  a  public  teacher  of 
the  church,  I  felt  a  sense  of  shame  for  the 
church's  silence  on  this  question,  that  I  started 
the  movement  of  the  New  Chivalry  in  my  own 
church,  hoping  that  I  might  assist  it  to  remove 
this  blot  from  its  own  escutcheon.  The  awak- 
ened conscience  on  the  social  evil  will  soon  com- 
pel the  church  to  take  sides  on  a  question  which 
is  more  important  for  the  welfare  of  the  home 
and  the  country  than  almost  any  other.  The 
church  cannot  afford  to  side-step  it.  Unless 
she  helps  bear  some  of  the  burden  of  battle,  she 
can  have  no  share  in  the  victory.  When  God's 
great  cause  of  justice  and  love,  as  applied  to  the 


44  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

social  evil,  shall  have  triumphed,  the  church  can- 
not afford  to  expose  herself  to  an  indictment 
from  the  noble  band  of  men  and  women  who 
shall  have  made  such  a  triumph  possible ! 

Thinking  Before  and  Not  After. 

When  a  young  man  learns  to  think  before, 
and  not  after  he  breaks  the  law  of  chivalry,  he 
has  acquired  the  secret  of  successful  knighthood. 
Here  lies  the  crux  of  the  whole  question.  Crush 
the  egg  and  you  need  not  fear  the  flight  of  the 
bird.  The  difference  between  victory  and  de- 
feat is  largely  the  difference  between  foresight 
and  hindsight.  It  is  foresight  which  distin- 
guishes a  man  from  the  ordinary.  Hindsight  is 
as  common  as  cobblestones  and  is  a  sure  sign  of 
mediocrity  and  weakness.  After  a  young  man 
has  indulged  in  an  unchivalrous  act  with  a  girl, 
and  the  force  of  his  passion  has  been  spent  and 
he  has  come  to  himself;  after  he  discovers  how 
his  heart  has  been  corroded,  how  his  self-respect 
has  vanished;  how  the  memory  of  his  mother 
has  been  dimmed;  how  a  barrier  has  been 
erected  between  himself  and  his  ideals;  how  he 
has  cheated  and  deceived  himself;  —  after  all 
this  dawns  on  him,  he  says  to  himself,  "  If  I  had 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  45 

only  thought  beforehand  what  this  act  entailed, 
I  never  would  have  done  it." 

"  If  he  had  only  thought  beforehand/' —  the 
whole  philosophy  of  the  world's  tragedy  lies  in 
this  cry  of  regret.  If  Judas  had  only  thought 
beforehand  as  he  did  after  his  deed,  it  never 
would  have  occurred.  If  Benedict  Arnold  had 
only  thought  beforehand  as  he  did  after  his 
deed,  it  never  would  have  occurred.  The  chief 
aim  of  the  New  Chivalry  is  to  build  a  battlement 
around  a  young  man,  at  the  point  of  his  greatest 
danger,  by  inducing  him  to  do  his  thinking 
beforehand.  Inasmuch  as  the  thought  about 
women  occupies  a  commanding  position  in  a 
young  man's  consciousness,  when  it  is  not  delib- 
erately devoted  to  other  interests,  it  becomes 
imperative  that  his  thought  be  rightly  directed 
and  rigidly  controlled.  The  one  person  in  all 
the  world  most  in  need  of  forethought  is  a 
youth.  Dr.  Holmes  once  said  that  it  made  no 
difference  if  a  man  is  spoiled  after  he  is  eighty ! 
The  idea  cannot  be  over-stressed,  that  the  time 
to  become  alarmed  over  a  preventable  tragedy 
is  before  and  not  after  it  occurs. 

It  would  be  well,  therefore,  for  every  young 
man  to  engrave  on  his  memory  in  letters  of  gold 
Ruskin's  burning  words  to  the  youth  of  his  day. 


46  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

:t  In  general  I  have  no  patience  with  people,  who 
talk  of  the  thoughtlessness  of  youth  indulgently. 
I  had  infinitely  rather  hear  of  thoughtless  old 
age,  and  of  the  indulgence  due  to  that.  When 
a  man  has  done  his  work,  and  nothing  can  in 
any  way  be  materially  altered  in  his  fate,  let  him 
forget  his  toil,  and  jest  with  his  fate,  if  he  will; 
but  what  excuse  can  you  find  for  wilfulness  of 
thought,  at  the  very  time  when  every  crisis  of 
future  fortune  hangs  on  your  decisions?  A 
youth  thoughtless!  when  the  course  of  all  his 
days  depends  on  the  opportunity  of  a  moment ! 
A  youth  thoughtless !  when  his  every  act  is  as  a 
torch  to  the  laid  train  of  future  conduct,  and 
every  imagination  a  fountain  of  life  or  death! 
Be  thoughtless  in  any  after  years,  rather  than 
now  —  though,  indeed  there  is  only  one  place 
where  a  man  may  be  nobly  thoughtless  —  his 
death  bed.  No  thinking  should  ever  be  left  to 
be  done  there." 

When  Chivalry  Fails. 

In  order  to  stimulate  young  men  to  do  their 
thinking  beforehand,  I  quote  a  concrete  experi- 
ence, contained  in  the  following  correspondence 
between  an  unnamed  person  and  Mrs.  Jessie  D. 
Hodder,  of  the  Massachusetts  General  Hos- 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  47 

pital,  Boston.  It  only  suggests  a  few  of  the 
tragic  and  far-reaching  results  of  one  thought- 
less and  unchivalrous  act,  but  they  are  sufficient 
to  enable  the  imagination  to  reconstruct  vividly 
the  tragedy  that  lies  back  of  the  external  facts. 
The  first  letter  is  as  follows :  —  "  My  dear 
Mrs.  Hodder :  The  last  of  March  I  wrote  to 
Miss  C about  a  girl  here.  She  was  preg- 
nant, and  you  advised  her  to  marry  the  man 
responsible  for  her  condition,  because  they  loved 
each  other.  This  seemed  to  me  reasonable  at 

the  time,  as  I  thought  it  was  X to  whom  she 

was  engaged.  It  turns  out  that  he  is  not  the 
man.  The  man  is  a  young  fellow,  who  was 
never  in  love  with  her,  with  whom  she  was  never 
in  love,  and  whom  she  now  loathes.  Under  the 
circumstances,  marriage  between  them  would 
seem  to  add  only  another  wrong  to  those  already 
committed.  The  girl  went  away,  and  by  the 
advice  of  some  one,  went  to  a  Home  in  Boston, 
where  her  baby  was  born,  three  weeks  ago. 
She  wants  to  leave  there  now.  She  does  not 
want  to  take  her  baby.  She  cannot  support  it, 
and  she  does  not  feel  that  she  can  take  it  and 
bring  it  up  without  any  father. 

"  My  appeal  to  you  is  to  tell  me  where  the 
child  can  go,  and  what  can  be  done  with  it  ?    The 


48  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

girl  is  a  very  interesting  country  girl,  used  to 
working  out  of  doors  on  a  farm.  She  is  musical, 
sings  very  well,  plays  the  piano  well,  played  the 
violin  in  an  orchestra  and  the  organ  in  her 
church.  She  is  a  high  school  graduate.  I  do 
not  want  her  to  come  back  here.  The  father  is 
a  Harvard  graduate,  who  has  worked  his  way 
through  college,  and  is  in  debt.  He  cannot  take 
care  of  the  child,  nor  take  the  responsibility  of 
its  support.  Will  you  not  tell  me  the  name  of 
some  institution  where  the  child  can  be  put? 
Do  you  know  of  any  place  where  the  mother 
can  go?  " 

The  answer  to  this  letter  is  as  follows :  >l  I 
remember  the  case  very  well,  and  am  glad  to  try 
to  answer  your  questions.  Every  situation  of 
this  kind  is  difficult  to  solve,  because  we  lose  our 
dispassionate  point  of  view.  I  do  not  agree 
with  you  that  the  girl  cannot  keep  her  baby. 
Think  of  the  widows  you  know  who  are  bringing 
up  their  children,  who  had  no  education,  nothing 
but  their  hands  to  earn  with,  and  untrained 
hands  at  that.  Disposing  of  a  baby  does  not 
leave  either  its  mother  or  father  where  they 
were  before  —  and  what  of  the  baby  ?  Go  look 
at  the  wards  of  the  state;  they  are  children  who 
have  not  asked  to  come  into  this  world,  and 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  49 

many  of  them  have  been  shuffled  off  by  selfish 
parents.  This  mother  can  take  care  of  her 
baby.  And  she  will  be  a  bigger,  braver  woman 
if  she  does,  as  you  realize.  I  can  imagine  no 
more  horrible  fate  than  to  feel  that  my  baby  was 
somewhere  around  in  the  world,  I  knew  not 
where.  Take  this  girl's  life  so  far,  add  the 
experience  of  carrying  and  giving  birth  to  her 
baby,  plus  the  care  she  will  have  had  of  it  so 
far,  then  subtract  the  baby,  put  it  selfishly,  bru- 
tally out  of  her  life,  and  what  is  there  left?  .  .  . 
You  see  we  stop  being  twenty,  and  we  come  to 
be  forty,  and  we  care  a  lot,  if  our  feelings  are 
worth  having.  Life  ceases  to  mean  existence, 
and  comes  to  mean  soul  and  all  that  goes  to 
make  it  richer  and  more  worth  while.  Can 
there  be  anything  more  awful  than  to  wake  up 
and  realize  that  one  has  thrown  away  an  oppor- 
tunity ? 

"  How  about  the  chance  to  develop  the  man 
morally?  What  bigger  debt  has  he  contracted 
in  this  world  than  his  debt  to  his  own  child? 
Why  cannot  he  deny  himself  and  spend  $10  a 
month  towards  its  support?  Say  that  to  him. 
Make  him  feel  that  his  child,  illegitimately 
born,  is  just  as  human  a  being,  just  as  sensitive, 
just  as  ambitious  as  a  child  born  in  wedlock,  or 


50  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

as  he  was  when  he  struggled  and  worked  his  way 
through  college.  I  cannot  feel  that  there  is  any 
growth  in  a  community  so  long  as  its  members 
are  shirkers.  This,  I  am  not  saying  to  you.  I 
am  saying  it  to  all  who  turn  and  run  from  an 
illegitimate  baby,  or  any  other  evidence  of  our 
own  self-indulgence  or  wrongdoing.  If  we  do 
not  hold  the  man  up  to  the  mark  in  these  cases, 
he  is  justified  in  feeling  that,  by  some  perversion 
or  twist  of  the  social  order, —  which  does  not 
apply  to  women, —  he  has  no  obligation  to  his 
offspring.  What  is  he  on  earth  for,  then?  To 
whom  does  he  owe  his  obligations?  To  so- 
ciety? His  child  is  society.  To  his  neighbor? 
His  child  is  his  nearest  neighbor.  His  child  is 
both,  and  closer  than  both.  For  the  sake  of  his 
moral  welfare;  for  the  sake  of  his  child;  for  the 
sake  of  the  next  girl  he  may  know;  for  the  sake 
of  the  community  in  which  he  lives;  and  upon 
which  these  two  would  throw  the  care  of  their 
child,  he  must  be  made  to  share  the  responsibil- 
ity of  the  child's  support  and  care.  Let  the  girl 
go  back  to  her  community.  Let  her  support  her 
child,  and  let  the  best  that  is  in  her  shine  forth 
and  force  all  to  respect  her.  Please  spend  all  of 
your  energy  in  boosting  her  up  on  the  side  of 
earning  her  living,  facing  her  community,  loving 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  51 

her  baby,  and  then,  if  the  love  of  her  betrothed  is 
real,  he  will  find,  added  to  it  that  deep  respect 
that  comes  from  seeing  a  strong  person  suffer 
bravely,  nay,  gladly.  The  Harvard  father,  too, 
will  have  been  made  a  co-sufferer,  and  therefore 
a  richer,  better  man."  These  letters  need  no 
comment.  They  tell  their  own  story.  It  is  the 
old  story  of  the  failure  to  think  beforehand  and 
the  lifelong  tragedy  which  often  follows  such 
failure. 


What  the  New  Chivalry  Means. 

THE  New  Chivalry  then  is  a  challenge  to  all 
patriotic  men  to  align  themselves  in  behalf  of  a 
cause,  which  is  vital  to  the  welfare  of  the  coun- 
try. It  is  a  simple,  definite,  constructive  plan  by 
which  each  man  and  boy  can  serve  the  cause  and 
begin  operations  at  once.  He  can  begin  with 
himself  and  then  with  the  comrade  next  to  him. 
The  New  Chivalry  is  not  a  new  organization 
but  a  new  movement.  It  has  no  constitution, 
no  by-laws,  no  stated  meetings,  no  officers,  no 
annual  dues,  no  banquets,  no  deficits  to  pay. 
Each  man  and  boy  becomes  a  Knight  of  the 
New  Chivalry  and  then  begins  to  work  at  it 


52  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

wherever  he  may  be.  He  becomes  a  Knight 
just  as  the  Knight  of  old  became  one,  by  declar- 
ing his  allegiance  to  the  cause.  Inasmuch  as 
the  New  Chivalry  enrolls  both  men  and  boys 
in  the  same  Knighthood,  it  will  be  noticed  that 
some  articles  in  the  Declaration  apply  to  one 
period  of  life  and  some  to  another.  It  is  in- 
tended to  cover  the  whole  of  a  man's  life.  The 
Declaration  of  Principles  that  each  man  and  boy 
is  asked  to  make  is  as  follows : 

"  As  a  Knight  of  the  New  Chivalry  I 
hereby  declare  my  loyalty  to  the  following  prin- 
ciples and  my  purpose  to  follow  them,  God  help- 
ing me :  To  a  personal  observance  of  the  single 
moral  standard  for  both  sexes ;  to  seek  informa- 
tion from  right  sources  concerning  ithe  high 
value  of  the  fact  of  sex  and  the  danger  of  its 
abuse;  to  marry  no  woman  until  I  am  assured  of 
my  physical  fitness  for  marriage;  to  observe 
the  laws  of  heredity  in  the  divine  function 
of  parenthood  for  the  sake  of  building  a  bet- 
ter race;  to  use  every  legitimate  means  for 
the  suppression  of  the  traffic  in  the  bodies  and 
souls  of  women;  to  cast  my  vote  and  influence 
in  favor  of  all  laws  looking  towards  the  final 
abolition  of  commercialized  vice;  to  assist  in 
relieving  economic  pressure  as  a  source  of  pros- 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  53 

titution;  to  make  known  my  loyalty  to  the  New 
Chivalry  and  create  sentiment  in  its  behalf 
by  using  its  medal  of  honor;  and  strive  to  per- 
suade at  least  one  comrade  to  enter  the  same 
Christian  Knighthood." 

The  Single  Moral  Standard. 

Since  this  Declaration  of  Principles  is  the 
heart  of  the  New  Chivalry,  it  is  important  that 
we  examine  its  articles  briefly. 

i.  "  To  a  personal  observance  of  the  single 
moral  standard  for  both  sexes."  This  means 
that  the  Knight  recognizes  the  moral  law  as 
one;  that  he  will  treat  every  other  man's  sister 
as  he  would  have  every  other  man  treat  his 
sister;  that  it  is  a  simple  matter  of  justice  and 
honor  for  a  man  to  demand  the  same  sex 
morality  from  himself,  that  he  demands  from 
a  woman;  that  it  is  neither  just  nor  necessary 
that  there  should  be  a  "  golden  standard  "  for 
women  and  a  "  leaden  standard  "  for  men;  that 
in  his  thought  and  conduct  he  will  put  the  same 
stigma  on  a  "  fallen  man "  as  on  a  "  fallen 
woman."  His  sense  of  honor  forbids  him  to 
assent  to  a  condition  of  things  which  regards 
the  very  existence  of  a  "  fallen  woman  "  as  il- 
legal, so  that  she  can  be  arrested,  fined  and  im- 


54  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

prisoned  at  any  time,  while  the  "  fallen  man," 
who  supports  and  uses  her  for  his  pleasure,  is 
not  even  considered  to  be  a  law-breaker.  The 
twentieth  century  will  doubtless  see  the  triumph 
of  this  single  moral  standard  and  the  Knightly 
man  naturally  desires  the  honor  of  taking  some 
part  in  making  it  prevail.  He  can  at  least  make 
it  the  rule  of  his  own  life. 

Ignorance  Is  Sin. 

2.  "  To  seek  information  from  right  sources 
concerning  the  high  value  of  the  fact  of  sex  and 
the  danger  of  its  abuse"  This  means  that  un- 
less a  boy  learns  these  facts  from  right  sources 
he  knows  he  will  learn  them  from  wrong 
sources  in  the  wrong  way,  which  may  perma- 
nently stain  his  imagination.  He  prefers  the 
right  to  the  wrong  way.  It  means  that  the 
Knight  recognizes  the  fact  that  he  is  endowed 
with  one  of  the  most  sacred  prerogatives  of  Al- 
mighty God,  the  power  of  body  and  soul  crea- 
tion, and  that  therefore  it  becomes  his  duty  to 
acquire  adequate  knowledge  about  sex  and  repro- 
duction. Thring  of  Uppingham  once  said,  "  the 
foremost  fact  of  all  the  world  as  regards  human 
nature  to  me  is  that  the  life  of  the  human  race 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  55 

is  entrusted  to  sexual  union."  The  Knight  be- 
lieves this  to  be  a  true  and  courageous  state- 
ment, and  therefore  he  thinks  that  no  elemental 
passion  in  a  man's  body  is  wrong  in  itself.  He 
does  not  think  it  necessary  to  go  through  a  long 
technical  course  in  biology  before  he  can  see 
the  meaning  of  the  very  wonderful  but  very 
common  facts  of  sex  and  procreation.  He 
thinks  that  scientific  knowledge,  if  he  has  any, 
needs  to  be  vitalized  by  a  great  unselfish  motive, 
in  order  to  safeguard  these  facts  for  the  sake  of 
other  people  in  the  present  and  the  future.  He 
will  keep  his  power  of  body  and  soul  creation 
sound  and  clean  for  the  sacramental  hour  of 
love.  That  he  may  do  so,  he  will  learn  the 
facts.  He  believes  there  is  nothing  degrading 
about  the  truth.  He  agrees  with  Browning 
that,  in  regard  to  this  and  many  other  facts  of 
life,  "  ignorance  is  not  innocence,  but  sin."  He 
will  never  make  the  question  of  sex  the  subject  of 
jest  or  of  common  talk,  because  he  understands 
that  it  is  far  more  harmful  to  defile  the  mind 
than  the  body.  If  a  Knight  is  a  father,  he  will 
teach  sex  facts  to  his  son.  If  he  is  a  son,  and  his 
father,  on  account  of  shyness  hesitates  or  fails 
to  inform  him,  he  will  inform  himself  by  con- 
sulting some  right  minded  man,  or  by  reading 


56  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

such  books  as  David  Starr  Jordan's  "  The 
Heredity  of  Richard  Roe  " ;  Hall's  "  Instead  of 
Wild  Oats";  Mary  Wood  Allen's  "Almost  a 
Man  " ;  Dr.  W.  S.  Hall's  "  Reproduction  and 
Sexual  Hygienics  ";  Oppenheim's  novel,  "  Wild 
Oats";  "Youth  and  Sex,"  by  Scharlieb  and 
Sibley. 

A  Better  Crop  of  Children. 

3.  "  To  marry  no  woman  until  I  am  assured 
of  my  physical  fitness  for  marriage."  The  prin- 
ciple here  stated  is  designed,  of  course,  to  apply 
only  to  the  two  venereal  diseases.  Stated  in 
general  terms,  it  ought  to  apply  to  any  disease, 
which  we  definitely  know  would  produce  perma- 
nently evil  results  in  one's  offspring.  A  man 
can  be  assured  of  his  physical  fitness  for  mar- 
riage only  by  a  physician's  examination.  He 
ought  to  secure  a  certificate  from  his  family 
physician,  or,  better  still,  from  his  bride's  family 
physician.  A  few  years  ago  I  reached  the  de- 
cision, and  publicly  announced  it,  that  I  would 
not  perform  the  marriage  ceremony  for  any  man, 
unless  he  furnished  such  a  certificate.  As  an 
officer  of  the  state,  as  well  as  a  minister,  I  could 
not  bring  myself  to  assume  any  part  of  the  re- 
sponsibility for  the  establishment  of  a  new 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  57 

family,  without  this  safeguard.  The  cheerful 
compliance  with  the  requirement,  which  I  uni- 
formly met,  seems  to  indicate  that  the  normal 
groom  realizes  that  it  concerns  his  own  welfare 
far  more  than  it  does  the  minister's  conscience. 
This  fact  furnishes  our  ground  of  hope  in  the 
attempt  to  make  it  a  universal  custom.  As 
to  the  method  of  securing  a  health  certificate, 
some  freedom  must  be  allowed.  The  examina- 
tion for  Life  Insurance  in  some  Companies  may 
be  sufficient.  I  remember  that  one  young  man, 
for  whom  I  performed  the  ceremony,  had  just 
returned  from  an  Arctic  expedition.  The  exam- 
ination necessary  for  acceptance  on  this  trip  had 
to  be  most  rigid,  and  it  completely  answered  the 
purpose. 

While  the  method  of  securing  the  knowledge 
of  one's  fitness  for  marriage  may  vary,  the  neces- 
sity of  knowing  the  fact  does  not  seem  to  me 
to  be  open  to  reasonable  doubt.  Is  it  not  a 
simple  question  of  honor  and  common  sense? 
If  a  man  buys  a  horse  he  examines  its  physical 
condition;  why  should  he  acquire  a  life-partner 
for  his  daughter,  and  inquire  carefully  as  to  his 
social  standing  and  financial  prospects,  and  then 
omit  the  one  factor  that  has  more  to  do  with  his 
daughter's  health  and  happiness  than  almost  any 


58  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

other?  Is  it  not  common  sense  to  take  precau- 
tion against  one  of  the  worst  forms  of  leprosy? 
It  is  true  that  one  cannot  be  absolutely  sure  of 
the  presence  of  venereal  diseases  without  the 
Wassermann  test,  and  it  seems  probable  that  the 
States  will  some  day  find  it  necessary,  as  a  pro- 
tection against  feeble-minded  and  insane  cit- 
izens, to  enforce  this  test  before  issuing  marriage 
licenses.  But  it  is  far  more  honorable  for  young 
men  to  furnish  such  a  certificate  before  the  law 
compels  them  to  do  so. 

The  ordinary  examination  will  do  much  and 
will  besides  put  a  bridegroom  on  his  honor.  If 
he  is  honorable,  he  will  be  proud  to  furnish  this 
guarantee  and  it  will  be  a  satisfaction  to  his 
bride's  family  to  receive  it.  If  he  refuses  to  do 
so,  it  may  be  regarded  as  the  confession  of  his 
fear  of  the  results.  In  that  case  he  ought 
not  to  be  allowed  to  commit  a  crime  against 
a  pure  woman  and  his  own  children,  and 
no  minister  ought  to  be  a  party  to  it.  When  a 
Knight  considers  that  infinite  pains  have  been 
taken  to  produce  a  better  crop  of  pigs,  sheep 
and  horses,  and  that  Government  experts  have 
written  bulletins  on  every  phase  of  stock  breed- 
ing, he  feels  he  would  be  glaringly  inconsist- 
ent, if  he  did  not  believe  it  was  vastly  more 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  59 

important  for  the  country  to  produce  a  better 
crop  of  boys  and  girls.  He  is  therefore, will- 
ing to  do  what  he  can  to  eliminate  disease  from 
the  breed  of  boys  and  girls. 

Race  Betterment. 

4.  "  To  observe  the  laws  of  heredity  in  the 
divine  function  of  parenthood  for  the  sake  of 
building  a  better  race"  This  means  that  the 
Knight  feels  personal  responsibility  for  his  un- 
born children.  His  chivalry  includes  little 
children  and  the  mothers  of  little  children.  If 
he  is  willing  to  undergo  physical  training  and 
self-denial  to  help  win  a  foot-ball  victory,  he 
feels  it  is  more  important  to  do  the  same  thing 
for  a  still  higher  victory  in  the  game  of  life  — 
the  prize  of  a  strong  and  healthy  child.  He 
will  therefore  endeavor  to  make  himself  physi- 
cally, mentally  and  morally  fit  to  be  the  father 
of  a  fit  child.  The  spark  of  immortal  life 
which  every  man  receives  as  a  free  gift,  should 
be  regarded  by  him  as  a  debt  of  honor  to  pass 
on  unsullied  and  undishonored.  "  Let  true 
hands  pass  on  an  unextinguished  torch  from  Sire 
to  Son." 

Aside  from  his  own  common-sense  instinct 
that,  in  general,  like  tends  to  produce  like,  two 


60  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

special  facts  force  the  consideration  of  heredity 
upon  his  attention.  One  fact  is  the  present  ap- 
parent deterioration  of  the  race.  Among  the 
signs  of  it,  which  are  multiplying  rapidly,  one 
may  be  noted.  In  1813  the  English  standard  for 
admission  to  the  army  was  6  feet;  in  1845  it  was 
lowered  to  5  feet  6  inches;  in  1883  to  5  feet  3 
inches  and  in  1901  to  5  feet.  Our  standard 
of  civilization  and  "  The  Great  Red  Plague  " 
are  destroying  not  only  the  physical,  but 
also  the  mental  and  moral  vigor  of  men  and 
women. 

The  other  fact  is  the  recent  discovery  of 
Mendel's  law  concerning  the  dominance  of  in- 
herited characteristics,  which  some  think  is  as 
great  a  discovery  as  those  of  Copernicus  and 
Newton.  When  a  man  observes  the  marvelous 
results  produced  by  heredity  in  plants  and  ani- 
mals, he  cannot  help  desiring  the  same  results 
for  his  own  children.  He  cannot  escape  the 
conviction  that  well-bred  children  are  as  im- 
portant as  well-bred  animals.  Percy  Mac- 
kaye's  drama,  "  To-Morrow,"  is  a  play  of  ab- 
sorbing interest,  which  seeks  to  apply  to  man 
the  same  principles  which  he  applies  to  plants 
and  animals.  The  national  conference  on 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  61 

Race  Betterment,  held  at  Battle  Creek,  Mich- 
igan, in  1914,  strikingly  shows  that  the  leading 
educators  of  the  country  have  come  to  realize 
that  race  degeneracy  is  one  of  the  serious  evils 
of  modern  civilization.  Nor  do  the  improve- 
ments of  the  human  breed  through  positive 
Eugenics  mean  that  we  need  in  any  way  inter- 
fere with  romantic  love.  It  has  to  do  rather 
with  a  young  man's  ideals.  It  asks  him  to  con- 
sider not  only  his  immediate  pleasure,  but  also 
the  welfare  of  his  children,  which  will  be  his 
pleasure  in  the  long  run.  It  urges  upon  him 
the  sanity  of  considering  all  the  factors  in- 
volved in  marriage.  It  raises  the  question  as 
to  whether  he  will  choose  a  wife  on  the  ground 
of  her  capacity  to  minister  to  his  vanity  and  his 
sensuality,  or  choose  her  on  the  ground  of 
her  capacity  to  be  a  good  mother.  If  the 
home-building  ideal  is  in  his  heart  he  will  in- 
stinctively fall  in  love  with  the  right  sort  of 
girl.  By  regulating  his  ideals  we  determine  his 
choice  without  interfering  with  love's  natural 
freedom  of  selection.  Education  in  right 
ideals,  for  which  the  New  Chivalry  stands, 
seems  to  be  the  only  way  by  which  to  build  a 
better  race. 


62  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

Knights  against  "  Pimps." 

5.  "  To  use  every  legitimate  means  for  the 
suppression  of  the  traffic  in  the  bodies  and  souls 
of  women."  This  means  that  the  Knight  will 
first  inform  himself  on  this  traffic  by  reading 
such  a  sane  and  strong  book  as  "  A  New  Con- 
science and  an  Ancient  Evil  "  by  Jane  Addams. 
Then  he  will  lend  his  aid  in  whatever  way  his  sit- 
uation permits.  He  can  always  play  the  part  of 
a  Knight  whenever  opportunity  offers.  There 
are  in  New  York  City  alone  about  2000  young 
men  who  at  every  corner  ply  the  trade  of  cap- 
turing young  girls  and  selling  them  into  white 
slavery.  The  astonishing  extent  of  this  busi- 
ness is  revealed  in  such  books  as  Clifford  G. 
Roe's  "Panders  and  Their  White  Slaves." 
The  presence  of  placards  in  public  places  warn- 
ing fathers  and  mothers  of  this  danger  is  a  soul- 
stirring  call  to  the  chivalry  of  the  young  men 
of  twentieth-century  America  to  come  to  the 
rescue,  and  defeat  the  barbarous  efforts  of  the 
white  slavers.  These  young  men  are  known 
as  "  procurers  of  women."  People  commonly 
speak  of  them  in  derision  as  "  pimps."  They 
are  a  blot  on  the  face  of  manhood.  They  call 
themselves  "  cadets."  They  are  trying  to  spoil 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  63 

a  good  word,  but  their  use  of  it  is  the  tribute 
which  hypocrisy  always  pays  to  virtue.  It  is 
an  arrow  pointing  to  the  truth,  that  evil  is  es- 
sentially weak  and  goodness  is  essentially 
strong.  For  this  reason  the  New  Chivalry 
may  be  expected  to  win  the  day,  when  the  valor 
of  her  Knights  wages  war  on  the  unmanly 
treachery  of  the  "  pimps." 

Compromise  of  Principle  Impossible. 

6.  "To  cast  my  vote  and  influence  in  favor 
of  all  laws  looking  towards  the  abolition  of 
commercialized  vice"  This  means  that  the 
Knight  recognizes  the  fact  that  the  backbone 
of  one's  enthusiasm  for  any  cause  is  broken 
unless  he  can  believe  in  its  final  triumph.  Be- 
lieving that  the  regulation  and  segregation  of 
vice  is  a  confession  of  weakness  and  a  com- 
promise of  principle  usually  ending  in  failure, 
the  Knight  will  work  for  its  final  abolition. 
Regarding  prostitution  as  a  crime  and  not 
only  a  vice,  he  does  not  believe  in  setting  aside 
a  district  in  which  it  can  be  carried  on,  any 
more  than  he  would  believe  in  setting  aside  a 
district  in  which  murder  or  robbery  could  be 
carried  on  with  immunity.  Knowing  the  deep 
and  wide-spread  connections  between  the  "  so- 


64  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

cial  evil/'  saloons,  dance  halls  and  property 
rights,  he  will  try  to  give  commercialized  vice 
its  logical  setting  by  making  it  a  political  issue, 
and  he  will  expose  any  man  who  directly 
or  indirectly  receives  financial  gain  from  a  sys- 
tem that  values  a  dollar  more  than  a  woman's 
soul.  He  will  also  try  to  dissuade  other  men 
from  the  stupid  fallacy  that  it  is  possible  to 
purchase  a  semblance  of  love  for  a  dollar  or 
two,  and  will  try  to  persuade  them  that  the  men 
who  try  it  are  cheated.  They  are  buying  trouble 
under  the  disguise  of  pleasure,  and  cultivating  a 
dangerous  and  growing  appetite  under  the  dis- 
guise of  the  beautiful  and  sacred  satisfaction  of 
love. 

Wages  and  Vice. 

7.  "  To  assist  in  relieving  economic  pressure 
as  a  source  of  prostitution."  This  means  that 
the  Knight  understands  that  prostitution  is  part 
of  the  general  problem  of  poverty,  that  ever 
since  Saint  Nicholas  with  his  three  gifts  of  gold 
saved  a  broken-hearted  father  from  selling  his 
three  daughters  into  sin  in  order  to  buy  bread, 
poverty  and  vice  have  walked  hand  in  hand. 
While,  undoubtedly,  there  is  as  much  vice  in  the 
upper  as  in  the  lower  classes,  and  sometimes 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  65 

more,  yet  it  seems  evident  that,  between  poverty 
and  vice,  there  is  a  natural  causal  connection. 
A  friend  of  the  poor,  therefore,  will  recognize 
the  economic  factor  in  the  "  social  evil,"  and 
make  his  protest  against  those  industrial  and 
business  conditions  which  permit  hunger  and 
physical  weariness  to  push  young  girls  along  the 
road  to  ruin,  and  in  which  the  lack  of  a  living- 
wage  compels  them  to  choose  between  hunger 
and  vice.  The  Knight  recognizes  the  fact  that  a 
bare  living-wage,  which  denies  to  a  girl  natural 
pleasures  and  comforts,  and  which  leads  her  into 
an  irregular  life,  likewise  prevents  a  young  man 
from  getting  married  as  early  as  he  should  and 
leads  him  also  into  the  same  irregularity.  A 
very  common  and  preventable  economic  factor 
in  the  moral  breakdown  of  girls  is  the  failure 
of  our  public  schools  to  provide  vocational  train- 
ing, which  would  enable  them  to  secure  a  better 
living.  To  work  for  better  living  conditions, 
both  for  young  women  and  young  men,  becomes 
the  obvious  duty  of  any  who  would  work  for  bet- 
ter sex  morality.  O.  Henry's  little  story, 
"  Brick-dust  Row,"  makes  this  sufficiently  clear 
by  showing  the  relation  of  dividends  to  a  girl's 
safety. 


66  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

The  Medal  of  Honor. 

8.  "  To  make  known  my  loyalty  to  the  New 
Chivalry  and  create  sentiment  in  its  behalf 
by  using  its  medal  of  honor"  The  use  of  a 
symbol  has  always  been  an  effective  means  of 
creating  sentiment  for  a  cause.  The  strength  of 
any  cause  at  any  time  depends  on  the  number  of 
men  who  are  willing  to  show  their  colors  and 
express  their  loyalty  to  them.  If  there  are  thou- 
sands of  young  men  who  are  working  to  ruin 
women  by  concealing  their  colors,  there  ought 
to  be  thousands  of  young  men  who  are  willing 
to  help  rescue  them  by  showing  their  colors. 
There  is  enough  of  the  spirit  of  chivalry  in 
American  youth  to  induce  them  to  do  so.  On 
examination  the  world  will  be  found  to  be  much 
better  than  we  sometimes  think  it  is. 

A  Bull's-eye  Lantern. 

But  there  is  a  factor  involved  in  the  use  of 
an  emblem,  which  cannot  be  disregarded. 
Every  young  man  of  the  right  sort  has  an 
instinctive  feeling  against  any  display  of  his 
virtue.  He  wants  to  be  the  thing  itself  without 
parading  it  by  means  of  words  or  badges.  He 
dislikes  any  exhibition  of  the  "  I  am  holier  than 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  67 

thou  "  spirit.  He  hates  cant.  Every  normal 
young  man  feels  like  the  boys  in  Stevenson's 
very  suggestive  story,  called  "The  Lantern 
Bearers,"  each  one  of  whom  walked  about  at 
night  with  a  lighted  bull's-eye  lantern  at  his 
belt,  but  kept  it  carefully  concealed  under  his 
top  coat.  He  was  happily  conscious  of  it  him- 
self, but  displayed  his  inner  light  only  on  cer- 
tain occasions  to  his  own  comrades.  It  is  be- 
cause of  this  natural  and  modest  feeling  among 
young  men  that  the  New  Chivalry's  medal  of 
honor  has  been  made  in  the  form  of  a  watch- 
fob,  an  article  which  almost  every  young  man 
and  boy  uses.  If  anyone  prefers  to  wear  it  on  a 
watch-chain,  instead  of  a  fob,  he  may  do  so.  It 
is  designed  to  be  used  either  with  a  fob  or  with  a 
chain.  Its  use  on  a  fob  or  chain  makes  it  visible 
yet  not  conspicuous.  It  is  the  happy  mean  be- 
tween two  extremes.  The  medal  of  honor  is 
each  Knight's  bull's-eye  lantern,  of  which  he  may 
be  privately  conscious  and  proud,  and  which  he 
may  display  as  occasion  and  good  taste  sug- 
gest. 

A  Work  of  Art. 

The  medal  of  honor  has  on  one  side  of  it  the 
figure  of  Sir  Galahad,  taken  from  the  painting 


68  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

by  George  Frederick  Watts,  which  hangs  in  the 
Chapel  of  Eton  College.  Galahad  is  the 
Knight  whose  "  strength  was  as  the  strength 
of  ten  because  his  heart  was  pure."  He  repre- 
sents perfectly  the  ideal  of  the  New  Chivalry, 
standing  (there)  by  his  white  horse,  equipped 
with  armor  for  defense  and  looking  out  on  life 
as  if  fascinated  with  his  vision  of  pure  man- 
hood. Sir  Galahad  makes  goodness  fascinat- 
ing. 

The  die  for  the  Medal  of  Honor  was  made 
by  the  well-known  medalist  of  New  York, 
Victor  D.  Brenner,  who  is  among  the  leaders 
of  his  profession  in  America.  He  is  generally 
known  as  the  maker  of  the  die  for  the  Lincoln 
cent,  but  he  has  made  many  other  medals  of 
equal  or  superior  merit,  like  that  of  John  Hay, 
and  "  The  Open  Door  in  the  Far  East."  The 
generosity  of  a  friend  and  neighbor  in  Mont- 
clair  made  it  possible  for  me  to  secure  the  serv- 
ices of  such  an  artist.  The  watch  fob  is  a  work 
of  art  of  the  highest  order,  simple  and  chaste, 
and  well  worth  having  for  its  own  sake.  It  is 
struck  from  a  die  in  three  forms:  bronze,  ster- 
ling silver  and  solid  1 8  karat  gold. 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  69 

A  Boy's  Public  Opinion. 

The  medal  of  honor,  then,  serves  several  dis- 
tinct purposes.  It  is  the  tangible  sign  that  a 
man  has  enlisted  as  a  Knight;  it  furnishes  be- 
sides a  natural  opening  for  a  conversation  on  the 
cause  of  the  New  Chivalry,  during  which  he 
may  win  recruits.  Its  presence  gives  needed 
strength  in  the  hour  of  sudden  temptation  by 
reminding  him  of  his  Knighthood.  On  the  re- 
verse side  is  a  place  where  he  can  engrave  his 
name  and  address.  This  makes  it  his  per- 
sonal emblem  in  a  special  and  significant  sense. 
By  far  the  most  important  function  of  the  medal 
is  to  create  a  correct  public  sentiment  among 
boys  and  young  men.  Before  a  boy  is  12  years 
old,  he  is  influenced  most  by  his  parents;  after 
he  is  12  or  14  years  old,  the  influence  of  the 
parent  is  replaced  by  that  of  his  comrades. 
The  sentiment  of  his  own  group  of  boys  is  his 
public  opinion  and  is  most  potent  in  shaping 
his  conduct.  The  fear  of  the  ridicule  of  his 
comrades  outweighs  all  other  considerations. 
The  immense  educational  value  of  a  boy's  com- 
panions is  well  stated  in  Puffer's  "  The  Boy  and 
his  Gang."  If,  therefore,  we  want  to  influence 
a  boy  effectively  for  good,  it  must  be  done 


70  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

through  the  public  sentiment  of  his  own  group. 
This  the  medal  seeks  to  do  by  representing  the 
idea  that  chivalry  and  not  self-indulgence  is  the 
mark  of  manliness. 

It  ought  to  be  carefully  noted  that  the  medal 
is  not  the  symbol  of  a  crime  which  its  wearer 
does  not  commit.  No  man  ought  to  wear  a 
badge  for  not  lying  or  not  stealing  or  not  com- 
mitting murder.  If  the  average  man  wore  a 
medal  for  every  wrong  he  did  not  do,  his  clothes 
would  be  completely  covered  with  them.  The 
medal  of  honor  stands  for  what  a  man  does,  and 
not  for  what  he  refrains  from  doing.  The  Dec- 
laration of  Principles  which  secures  the  medal 
contains  not  a  single  negative  prohibition.  It  is 
composed  entirely  of  "  Thou  shalts."  Like  the 
badge  of  the  Red  Cross,  the  New  Chivalry's 
medal  indicates  that  a  man  is  engaged  in  a  con- 
structive work  of  positive  helpfulness.  As 
the  symbol  of  an  ideal,  it  furnishes  inspiration 
for  work  in  its  behalf.  As  an  agent  of  the 
ideal,  it  helps  to  make  the  ideal  contagious. 

The  Highest  Heroism. 

It  is  primarily  a  medal  of  honor,  like  a  medal 
given  in  recognition  of  a  heroic  deed  or  an 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  7,1 

achievement  in  an  athletic  contest,  only  it  is 
given  at  the  beginning,  instead  of  at  the  end 
of  the  process.  The  reverse  side  of  the  medal 
contains  the  motto  and  the  palm  of  victory.  It 
is  given  to  him  when  he  enlists,  because  we  be- 
lieve that  no  battle  is  ever  won  unless  a  man 
takes  victory  with  him  into  the  battle  before 
it  begins.  The  medal  gives  each  man  the  gift 
of  expectancy  —  we  expect  him  to  win.  Being 
a  question  of  honor,  the  man  who  violates  his 
principles  will  of  course  discontinue  the  use  of 
the  medal,  or  resume  its  use  only  with  an  earnest 
desire  to  try  again.  The  young  man  who, 
through  self-control,  succeeds  in  deserving  the 
medal  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  heroes.  "  He 
that  ruleth  his  spirit  is  better  than  he  that  taketh 
a  city."  The  hero  on  a  field  of  battle  is  stimu- 
lated to  high  deeds  through  martial  music, 
flying  flags  and  the  inspiring  tonic  of  comrade- 
ship. But  the  Knight  of  the  New  Chivalry 
marches  by  himself,  hailed  by  no  spectators, 
cheered  by  no  plaudits,  unaided  except  by  his 
own  internal  resources.  To  be  a  hero  in  a  war 
without  witnesses  is  a  higher  achievement  and 
therefore  worthy  of  greater  honor. 


72  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

Ten  Times  One  Is  Ten. 

9.  "  And  strive  to  persuade  at  least  one  com- 
rade to  enter  the  same  Christian  Knighthood" 
This  means  that  the  cause  is  intended  to  grow  by 
its  own  inherent  merit.  It  does  not  waste  so 
much  strength  in  organization  that  it  has  little 
left  with  which  to  do  the  work  itself.  It  asks 
each  man  and  boy  to  begin  at  once,  to  begin  with 
himself,  and  then  win  the  man  or  boy  next  to 
him,  because  one  of  the  strongest  influences  on 
a  man  or  boy  is  the  public  opinion  of  his  own 
group  of  comrades.  Senator  Hoar,  speaking 
once  of  Edward  Everett  Hale's  book,  "  Ten 
Times  One  is  Ten,"  said  that  Dr.  Hale  "  taught 
us  the  truth,  very  simple,  but  which  somehow 
nobody  ever  got  hold  of  till  he  did,  that  virtue 
and  brave  living  and  helping  other  men  can  be 
made  to  grow  by  geometrical  progression." 
The  Christian  religion  itself  started  with  a  little 
band  of  twelve  average  men,  which  George 
Matheson  has  called  "  The  League  of  Pity," 
and  it  grew  into  millions  through  the  contagious 
influence  of  one  man  upon  another.  We  can 
see  that  any  cause  grows  most  rapidly  by  each 
man  winning  his  comrade,  when  we  remember 
that  ten  times  one  is  ten,  and  ten  times  ten  is  a 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  73 

hundred.  It  may  seem  to  be  a  slower  method 
at  the  first,  but  it  is  far  bigger  in  permanent 
results. 

A  Declaration  of  Independence. 

The  above  principles  constitute  a  real  Decla- 
ration of  Independence.  It  will  be  noticed  that 
the  man  who  joins  the  New  Chivalry  move- 
ment is  not  required  to  take  any  oath,  but  is 
asked  merely  to  make  a  declaration  of  his  al- 
legiance. The  objection  to  an  oath  is  that  it 
requires  a  man  to  give  away  the  control  of  his 
future  actions.  It  is  true  that  an  oath  or 
pledge  is  required  of  a  man  when  he  marries 
or  joins  a  church  or  becomes  a  Government 
official,  but  these  actions  are  civil  contracts  as 
well  as  pledges.  After  all,  so  far  as  the  real 
significance  of  any  relationship  of  life  is  con- 
cerned, an  oath  or  the  lack  of  it  matters  very 
little.  If  a  man's  word  isn't  any  good,  his  oath 
isn't  either.  The  real  difference  lies  in  the  kind 
of  spirit  back  of  the  action.  That  is  why  Jesus 
objected  to  the  use  of  oaths.  He  thought  a 
good  man's  word  was  sufficient.  He  thought 
the  best  way  to  educate  a  man  is  to  trust  him. 
If  the  right  spirit  is  present,  an  oath  is  useless; 
if  the  right  spirit  is  absent,  an  oath  is  a  failure. 


74  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

The  New  Chivalry  trusts  every  Knight  on  his 
word  alone.  It  asks  young  men  to  espouse  its 
principles  not  for  the  sake  of  any  oath,  but  out 
of  love  for  the  principles  themselves.  It  be- 
lieves it  is  every  young  man's  privilege  to  begin 
life  by  making  a  declaration  of  independence 
from  every  influence  which  may  lead  him  to 
ultimate  wreckage.  It  calls  for  volunteers 
animated  not  so  much  by  a  sense  of  solemn 
obligation,  but  rather  by  a  sense  of  the  joyous 
opportunity  it  affords  them  to  serve  their  own 
highest  interests,  their  family  welfare,  their 
country's  honor. 

VI 

A  Patriotic  Service. 

THIS,  then,  is  the  New  Chivalry.  It  is  not  a 
new  organization,  but  a  new  movement  for  the 
protection  of  the  family  fireside  and  to  further 
the  welfare  of  the  nation.  The  "  Walls  of 
Sparta  are  made  of  Spartans,"  sang  an  old  ppet. 
The  walls  of  America  are  made  of  Americans. 
The  function  of  the  home  is  to  make  good  citi- 
zens for  the  Republic.  How  can  it  perform  its 
function  well,  with  an  insidious  blight  at  its 
heart?  The  purpose  of  the  New  Chivalry  is 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  75 

to  provide  a  defense  both  for  the  home  and  the 
nation. 

The  Country's  Flag. 

The  flag  is  the  emblem  of  an  unseen  spiritual 
ideal.  What  the  flag  of  any  country  sym- 
bolizes depends  on  the  motives  and  conduct  of 
her  citizens.  The  colors  of  our  flag  were 
chosen  because  White  signifies  purity;  Red, 
valour;  Blue,  justice.  Nothing  could  better 
embody  the  spirit  of  Chivalry.  The  flag,  which 
floats  over  blighted  and  desecrated  womanhood, 
is  far  more  dishonored,  than  it  would  be,  if  it 
drooped  in  defeat  on  the  field  of  battle,  because 
the  moral  fiber  of  the  family  depends  on  the  in- 
tegrity of  woman,  and  because  the  family  is  the 
unit  out  of  which  the  nation  is  built.  An 
American  can  be  true  to  his  country's  flag,  only 
in  so  far  as  he  helps  to  make  the  spirit  of  Chiv- 
alry dominant. 

The  Country's  Great  Seal. 

The  same  lofty  ideal  is  embodied  in  the  sym- 
bols of  our  great  seal.  The  escutcheon  is  borne 
on  the  breast  of  an  American  Eagle  without 
any  other  supporters.  This  denotes  that  the 
only  support  which  the  country  needs  is  her 


y6  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

own  virtue.  In  the  eagle's  beak  is  a  scroll  with 
a  motto  to  indicate  the  strength  which  comes 
from  union.  The  idea  was  suggested  to  Jeffer- 
son by  one  of  ^Esop's  fables.  A  father  called 
his  family  of  discordant  sons  about  him,  and 
taking  a  bundle  of  rods  bound  compactly  to- 
gether bade  each  one  try  to  break  it,  which  none 
could  accomplish.  He  then  gave  each  one  a 
single  rod  from  the  bundle,  which  was  of 
course  easily  broken.  On  the  reverse  of  the 
seal  is  a  pyramid,  to  signify  strength;  it  is  un- 
finished. In  the  zenith  is  an  eye  in  a  triangle, 
an  adoption  of  an  ancient  symbol  of  the  oversee- 
ing God,  and  over  it  a  motto,  "  annuit  coeptis," 
adapted  from  a  statement  in  Virgil's  ^Eneid. 
It  expresses  the  conviction  that  God  has  favored 
the  nation's  undertakings.  It  suggests  the  hand 
of  God  in  American  History.  On  the  pyramid 
is  the  date  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  under  it  a  motto,  "  novus  ordo  seculorum," 
also  from  Virgil,  indicating  the  New  American 
Era. 

"  Old  Glory." 

The  ideals  suggested  by  the  seal  and  flag  are 
so  exalted  and  have  already  been  realized  to 
such  a  degree  that  the  flag  has  been  baptized 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  77 

"Old  Glory "—  Why  is  the  flag  so  called? 
In  his  poem  on  it,  which  is  printed  in  an 
appendix  of  this  book,  Whitcomb  Riley  explains 
its  meaning.  The  scene  is  a  bright  October 
morning  in  one  of  our  American  cities.  The 
occasion  is  a  reunion  of  old  soldiers.  As  the 
procession  of  bronzed  patriots  marches  up  the 
broad  avenue,  their  flag  fluttering  in  the  morn- 
ing breeze  at  the  head  of  the  column,  on  the 
sidewalk  stands  an  old  soldier  too  crippled  to 
march  with  his  comrades.  The  sight  of  the 
flag  moves  him  to  inquire  what  he  has  long 
wanted  to  know,  how  it  got  its  name  "  Old 
Glory."  After  repeated  questions,  and  sug- 
gested answers  which  recall  the  wars,  the  scars 
and  the  sorrows  endured  in  its  behalf,  the  real 
reason  becomes  clear.  It  is  because  the  flag 
stands  for  ideals  and  for  causes  as  old  as  the 
Glory  of  God.  Emblems  and  ideals  like  these 
form  a  great  national  tradition  for  the  youth  of 
our  land  and  ought  to  inspire  them  with  the 
spirit  of  chivalry.  To  apply  the  same  ideals  to 
family  life,  to  leave  unstained  a  noble  heritage, 
to  finish  the  incomplete  pyramid,  not  by  the 
addition  of  more  land,  but  by  the  building  of  a 
better  race,  that  is  the  task  awaiting  us. 


78;  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

The  New  Chivalry's  Motto. 

The  New  Chivalry,  by  its  very  nature,  must 
depend  on  the  loyalty  of  individual  men  and  of 
individual  boys.  It  is  because  the  movement 
has  no  organization  that  the  motto  chosen  for  it 
is  the  motto  of  the  Field  Marshal  von  Moltke 
— "  March  apart  —  strike  together."  In  social 
purity,  we  must  march  apart,  each  man  loyal 
to  his  principles  in  his  own  life,  but  we  strike 
together  with  the  unity  and  force  of  impact  for 
the  defense  of  the  American  home  and  of  our 
Republic.  The  declaration  of  principles  which 
every  Knight  of  the  New  Chivalry  is  asked  to 
make  is  like  the  Ephebic  oath  taken  by  every 
free-born  youth  in  Ancient  Greece,  when  his 
name  was  entered  on  the  list  of  his  tribe.  He 
bound  himself  by  solemn  oath  to  the  service  and 
defense  of  his  country. 

The  original  idea  of  Knighthood  has  long 
been  buried  underneath  cheap  notions  of  dis- 
play, military  honors  and  personal  advance- 
ment. The  root  meaning  of  Knight  is  not 
warrior  but  servant.  The  Anglo-Saxon  Cniht, 
the  Dutch  and  German  Knecht,  mean  one  who 
serves.  In  the  day  of  the  Old  Chivalry  every 
soldier  was  not  a  Knight.  What  made  him  a 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  79 

Knight  was  the  fact  that  he  served.  The  aim 
of  the  New  Chivalry  is  to  assist  in  restoring  to 
Knighthood  its  primal  meaning  of  devoted  serv- 
ice, and  to  make  it  clear  that  true  Knighthood 
is  the  only  order  to  which  it  is  worth  while  to 
belong,  that  real  distinction  can  be  achieved 
only  through  unselfish  service,  that  the  service 
a  Knight  renders  his  country  is  too  great  to  be 
repaid  save  by  the  joy  of  serving  his  country's 
ideals. 

Lincoln's  Boys. 

The  young  manhood  of  our  nation  responded 
most  nobly  to  the  call  for  the  freedom  of  the 
black  slave.  Of  Lincoln's  enlistment  of  two 
and  a  half  million  soldiers,  two  million  were 
under  the  age  of  twenty-one,  one  million  un- 
der the  age  of  eighteen,  and  one  hundred 
thousand  under  the  age  of  fifteen.  No  one  re- 
sponded to  the  Country's  call  as  did  the  boys, 
so  the  great  soul  of  Lincoln  yearned  over 
them,  and  he  frequently  refused  to  issue  orders 
to  shoot  the  sentinels,  who  slept  at  their  post 
of  duty,  because  he  knew  that  it  was  often  the 
sleep  of  childhood.  They  were  mere  boys  but 
they  saved  the  country.  The  young  manhood 
of  the  country  is  summoned  to  respond  once 


8o  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

more  to  the  call  of  chivalry,  this  time  not  to  save 
the  black,  but  white  slaves,  and  to  build  battle- 
ments of  virtue  around  the  American  home  at 
the  point  of  its  greatest  danger. 

A  Knight's  Guardian  Angel. 

Just  as  women  played  a  large  part  and  bore 
a  heavy  burden  in  the  war  of  '61,  so  will  they 
take  their  share  in  this  new  war  in  which  we 
are  now  engaged.  The  part  which  girls  and 
women  are  to  play  in  the  New  Chivalry  may 
indeed  be  decisive,  for  they  would  suffer  most 
by  its  defeat  and  they  will  gain  most  by 
its  triumph.  They  will  also  cover  the  subject 
with  a  particular  sanctity,  because  there  is  little 
hope  for  any  pronounced  progress  in  per- 
sonal purity  until  their  influence  becomes  felt 
and  we  begin  to  regard  the  topic  as  one  worthy 
to  be  spoken  of  with  pride  and  not  with  shame. 
It  is  woman's  part  to  become  the  Knight's 
guardian  angel,  as  she  did  in  the  days  of  the 
old  Chivalry.  In  accepting  her  as  guardian 
let  the  Knight  present  his  wife  or  sweetheart 
with  his  medal  of  honor,  that  she  may  wear  it 
as  a  locket,  or  let  him  carry  a  bronze  medal 
giving  her  one  made  of  silver  or  gold.  He 
would  thus  be  pledging  his  word  of  honor  both 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  81 

to  himself  and  to  one  whom  he  loves.  It  is 
my  hope  that  the  medal's  meaning  may  be  so 
conscientiously  safe-guarded  that  its  possession 
will  be  a  satisfactory  guarantee  to  the  young 
woman  whose  love  he  seeks  to  win,  and  to  whom 
he  presents  his  medal.  By  regarding  it  as  such 
a  token  she  would  help  him  to  keep  his  honor. 
The  most  potent  inspiration  of  heroism  has 
always  been  the  admiration  of  a  good  woman. 

The  Breath  of  Violets. 

The  inspiration  woman  furnishes  to  man  is 
one  of  the  strongest  of  motives  to  keep  him 
loyal.  Her  part  in  the  New  Chivalry  can  be 
stated  most  briefly  by  an  illustration.  One  of 
the  most  terribly  dramatic  scenes  of  the  Civil 
War  was  Pickett's  charge  on  the  third  day 
of  Gettysburg.  The  moments  of  anticipation 
were  awful  in  their  intensity.  They  are  thus 
recorded  in  a  recent  volume,  "  Pickett  and 
his  Men." 

Pickett  had  received  a  note  from  headquar- 
ters. He  handed  it  to  Longstreet.  "  General 
Longstreet,  shall  I  go  forward?"  he  asked. 
Longstreet  looked  at  him  with  an  expression 
which  seldom  comes  into  any  face.  He  held  out 
his  hand  and  bowed  his  head  in  assent.  Not  a 


82  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

word  did  he  speak.  "  Then  I  shall  lead  my 
division  forward,  sir,"  said  Pickett,  and  gal- 
loped off.  He  had  gone  only  a  few  yards  when 
he  came  back  and  took  a  letter  from  his  pocket. 
On  it  he  wrote  in  pencil:  "  If  old  Peter's  nod 
means  death,  good-bye  and  God  bless  you,  lit- 
tle one!"  He  gave  the  letter  to  Longstreet 
and  rode  back.  That  letter,  with  its  faintly 
pencilled  words,  reached  its  destination,  far 
down  in  Virginia. 

Pickett  gave  orders  to  his  brigade  command- 
ers, and  rode  along  the  line,  his  men  spring- 
ing to  their  feet  with  a  shout  of  delight  as  he 
told  them  what  was  expected  of  them.  He  was 
sitting  on  his  horse  when  Wilcox  rode  up. 
Taking  a  flask  from  his  pocket,  Wilcox  said: 
"  Pickett,  take  a  drink  with  me.  In  an  hour 
you'll  be  in  hell  or  glory."  Pickett  declined 
to  drink,  saying,  "  I  promised  the  little  girl  who 
is  waiting  and  praying  for  me  down  in  Vir- 
ginia that  I  would  keep  fresh  upon  my  lips,  un- 
til we  shall  meet  again,  the  breath  of  the  violets 
she  gave  me  when  we  parted.  Whatever  my 
fate,  Wilcox,  I  shall  try  to  do  my  duty  like  a 
man,  and  I  hope  that,  by  that  little  girl's  pray- 
ers, I  shall  reach  either  glory  or  Glory." 

Touched  by  inspirations  like  these  from  the 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  83 

angel  who  presides  at  man's  fireside,  the  men 
and  boys  of  our  nation  will  respond  again  to  a 
call  more  urgent  than  that  of  '61.  They  will 
bear  a  valiant  part  in  a  conquest  which  means 
not  the  destruction,  but  the  conservation  of  hu- 
man life. 

To  be  Alive  Honorably. 

The  hearts  of  large  numbers  are  already 
moved  by  the  same  impulse  that  spoke  to  the 
young  heart  of  Gareth  when  he  was  first 
touched  by  an  ambition  to  do  Christly  service 
under  King  Arthur.  His  mother  pleaded  with 
him  to  remain  at  home  in  the  castle,  to  live  a 
self-indulgent  life  and  follow  the  deer.  With 
a  fine  touch  of  scorn  he  made  answer  to  his 
mother, — 

Man  am  I  grown;  a  man's  work  must  do, 
Follow  the  deer?     Follow  the  Christ,  the  King, 
Live  pure,  speak  true,  right  wrong,  follow  the  King, 
Else  wherefore  born? 

Else  wherefore  born  indeed!  To  follow  the 
white  King  who  calls  for  volunteers  in  the  no- 
blest of  all  wars,  to  assist  in  making  our  liege 
Lord  the  dominant  Lord  of  life,  to  believe  that 
his  principles  are  practicable,  to  feel  personal 
shame  when  his  ideals  are  abandoned,  to  be  a 


84  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

Knight  of  true  chivalry, —  this  is  the  only  rea- 
son for  being  alive  honorably.  Every  true 
Knight  believes  that  there  is  no  war  so  brilliant 
as  a  war  against  wrong  and  no  victory  so  worthy 
to  be  sung  as  a  victory  for  virtue. 


REVERSE    SIDE    OF    THE    GREAT    SEAL   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 


PART  II 

ADDRESSED  TO  FRIENDS  OF  YOUNG 

MEN 


"The  utmost  for  the  highest." 

Motto  of  Georee  Frederick  Watts 


Are  Parents  Too  Shy? 

THE  need  of  some  present  reform  to  safe- 
guard the  nation  against  sexual  abuses  and  dis- 
eases is  apparent  to  all  thoughtful  people.  We 
know  what  needs  to  be  done.  How  to  do  it  is 
the  difficult  thing.  Whether  children  can  be 
reached  better  through  their  parents,  or  parents 
through  their  children,  is  an  open  question. 
My  own  conviction  is  that,  so  far  as  new  ideas 
are  concerned,  there  is  far  more  chance  of  suc- 
cess if  we  start  with  the  children.  The  hope 
of  reform  has  ever  been  the  spirit  of  youth. 
A  widely-held  theory  is  that  the  parents  ought 
to  do  this  work.  The  condition,  however,  which 
confronts  us  is  that  the  parents  are  not  doing 
it.  I  asked  my  group  of  thirty-five  young  men 
how  many  of  them  had  been  spoken  to  by  their 
fathers,  and  I  was  shocked  to  learn  that  only  one 
out  of  thirty-five  had  ever  had  a  word  on  the 
subject  from  his  father  and  then,  he  said,  it  was 
ten  years  too  late,  although  he  was  only  eighteen 

87 


88  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

when  he  made  the  statement.  My  impression 
is  that  this  represents  a  condition  of  things,  not 
at  all  uncommon,  but  rather  generally  true  of 
most  parents.  Whatever  is  almost  universal, 
while  not  always  true,  is  always  significant. 
Having  earnestly  sought  the  reasons  for  this 
apparently  strange  silence,  I  am  not  disposed 
to  make  a  sweeping  condemnation  of  fathers 
for  this  neglect.  The  personal  and  subtle 
bond  between  father  and  son  is  a  fundamental 
barrier,  which,  for  reasons  difficult  and  unnec- 
essary to  analyze  here,  may  cause  embarrass- 
ment to  them  both.  For  this  reason,  and  also 
because  of  greater  fitness  for  the  task,  some 
other  man  may  be  a  better  guide  for  a  boy  than 
his  own  father. 

Can  Eugenics  Be  Taught? 

Who  shall  give  this  instruction?  Before  an- 
swering this  question  it  is  highly  important  to 
understand  clearly  what  we  mean  by  instruction 
in  Eugenics.  Physiology  bears  the  same  rela- 
tion to  eugenics  that  theology  does  to  religion. 
We  can  teach  physiology  and  theology  but  not 
eugenics  and  religion.  While  they  rest  on  a 
knowledge  of  facts,  essentially  they  are  ideals  to 
be  practiced.  It  avoids  endless  confusion  when 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  89 

we  perceive  that  Eugenics  cannot  be  taught  as 
we  teach  arithmetic  and  geography.  In  other 
words  we  must  expand  our  term,  "  sex  educa- 
tion," to  include  both  biology  and  religion.  A 
mere  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  biology  is  never 
sufficient  to  inspire  eugenic  ideals  of  life.  Medi- 
cal students  have  special  knowledge  of  biology, 
but  as  a  class  they  are  notoriously  lax  in  eu- 
genic ideals.  Biological  facts,  without  control- 
ling motives,  are  like  cut  flowers,  beautiful  to- 
day, withered  to-morrow. 

Education  in  Eugenics  therefore  must  in- 
clude not  merely  instructions  in  the  facts  of  sex 
but  also  a  training  of  the  will  and  development 
of  the  sense  of  responsibility.  It  only  adds  to 
our  difficulty  and  defeats  our  own  purpose  if 
we  acquaint  boys  with  knowledge  which  fires 
their  imagination,  unless  we  also  put  into  their 
hearts  the  key  to  self-control.  Self-knowledge 
without  self-control  is  dangerous.  To  self- 
knowledge,  the  New  Chivalry  aims  to  add  self- 
reverence  and  self-control.  These  three,  taken 
together  as  Tennyson  said,  lead  to  sovereign 
power.  It  takes  all  three  to  crown  a  young 
man  King  over  himself.  To  help  crown  men 
Kings  over  themselves  is  the  aim  of  The  New 
Chivalry. 


90  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

Who  Are  the  Best  Teachers? 

Our  question  as  to  who  should  give  sex  in- 
struction has  answered  itself.  No  man  is  fitted 
to  give  it  unless  he  has  the  right  spirit,  no  mat- 
ter what  his  equipment  in  technical  knowledge 
may  be.  The  New  Chivalry  by  its  very  name 
puts  its  emphasis  on  the  right  spirit.  It  sug- 
gests an  attitude  of  mind.  It  dwells  not  so 
much  on  the  facts  as  on  the  use  we  shall  make 
of  them.  The  amount  of  knowledge  such  a 
teacher  needs  to  have  is  simple  and  easily  ac- 
quired. To  say  that  a  man  needs  a  scientific 
course  in  biology  before  he  can  tell  a  boy  what 
to  do  and  what  not  to  do  to  keep  certain  parts 
of  his  body  normal,  is  like  saying  that  a  mother 
needs  a  professional  course  in  ethics  and  sys- 
tematic theology  before  she  attempts  to  per- 
suade her  boy  that  he  ought  not  to  lie  or  steal 
or  commit  murder.  To  give  sex  instruction 
properly  a  man  needs  two  things,  he  needs  the 
right  spirit  and  a  knowledge  of  the  simple  facts 
of  sex  and  of  its  dangers.  The  men  best  fitted 
will  be  found  chiefly  among  ministers,  pub- 
lic school  teachers  and  Sunday  School  teach- 
ers. 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY        91 

Public  School  Instruction. 

There  is  special  reason  why  such  men  should 
volunteer  for  this  service.  At  present  it  is 
difficult  to  include  it  in  the  Public  School  cur- 
riculum. To  give  it  in  the  regular  course  of 
instruction  forces  it  upon  all  the  students  when 
the  parents  of  some  of  them  are  opposed  to  it. 
This  arouses  public  antagonism  and  heated  dis- 
cussion, which  often  beclouds  the  issue  and 
hurts  the  cause.  It  seems  apparent  that  the 
wise  course  at  present,  and  the  one  adopted  by 
the  New  Chivalry,  is  to  give  the  instruction  in 
private  volunteer  groups  of  boys  under  the 
guidance  of  any  minister,  physician  or  teacher 
fitted  for  the  task. 

Any  public  school  teacher,  so  fitted,  ought  to 
be  left  entirely  free  to  organize  such  a  class. 
As  parents  become  more  awake  to  the  real  needs 
they  will  urge  their  boys  to  enter  such  groups. 
They  ought  to  know  that  it  is  not  at  all  a  ques- 
tion between  giving  their  boys  information 
about  sex,  and  giving  them  no  information,  as 
they  suppose.  It  is  a  question  between  the 
wrong  kind  and  the  right  kind  of  information. 
For  them  to  stand  silently  by  as  their  boys  ac- 
quire the  wrong  information  in  the  wrong  way, 


92  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

when  a  little  right  information  would  save  them 
from  a  possible  tragedy,  is  little  short  of  crimi- 
nal negligence.  The  vast  amount  of  unneces- 
sary suffering,  which  a  little  information  could 
easily  prevent,  is  indicated  by  a  fact  reported 
by  Kirkpatrick  in  his  "  Fundamentals  of  Child 
Study."  He  says  that  "  Lancaster  found  in 
the  possession  of  one  advertising  firm,  seven 
hundred  and  five  thousand  letters  from  boys 
who  had  thus  consulted  quacks  regarding  their 
perverted  habits,  and  real  or  supposed  diseases. 
Some  had  paid  hundreds  of  dollars  for  treat- 
ment, when  the  symptoms  described  were  per- 
fectly normal  (such  as  sexual  dreams).  Many 
of  the  boys  were  suffering  untold  agonies  be- 
cause they  supposed  they  were  ruined  physi- 
cally, socially,  and  morally.  They  dared  not 
speak  to  parent,  family  physician,  or  adult 
friend,  but  poured  out  their  whole  souls  to 
these  distant  and  unworthy  strangers." 

ii 

Private  Instruction. 

WHILE  the  New  Chivalry  is  not  a  new 
organization  and  has  no  regular  meetings  or 
officers  or  programmes,  yet  those  who  join  it 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  93 

will  need  to  hold  a  few  special  meetings  for 
instruction  and  inspiration.  In  every  com- 
munity, the  Sunday  School  or  Public  School  or 
young  people's  society  or  Boy  Scouts  or  The 
Home  and  School  Association  or  some  institu- 
tion concerned  in  the  welfare  of  the  younger 
generation,  ought  to  select  some  wise  and  good 
man  to  call  together  groups  of  boys  and  instruct 
them  in  social  hygiene. 

Any  man  of  good  judgment  with  average  in- 
telligence and  right  spirit  can  equip  himself  for 
this  task  by  reading  Dr.  Robert  N.  Willson's 
recent  book  on  "  Sex  Hygiene  for  Parents  and 
Teachers" — published  by  the  author,  1827 
Spruce  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  "  Yourself 
and  Your  House  Wonderful,"  by  H.  A.  Guer- 
ber,  is  generally  considered  to  be  one  of  the  best 
books  for  the  instruction  of  younger  children. 
Until  entire  communities  can  agree  to  include 
such  instruction  in  the  public  school,  it  ought  to 
be  given  in  private  to  groups  of  boys  whose 
parents  desire  it.  Such  meetings  need  be  few  in 
number,  no  more  than  are  necessary  at  certain 
ages  of  a  boy's  life  to  give  the  necessary  instruc- 
tion and  warning  suited  to  the  needs  of  each 
period.  The  purpose  of  such  a  meeting  is  "  to 
impart  such  knowledge  of  sex  at  each  period  of 


94  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

the  child's  life  as  may  be  necessary  to  preserve 
health,  develop  right  thinking  and  control  con- 
duct." 

Simplicity  in  Organization. 

While  suggestions,  for  the  operation  of  the 
New  Chivalry,  ought  to  be  as  concrete  and  defi- 
nite as  may  be,  yet  it  cannot  be  over-emphasized, 
that  one  of  the  chief  merits  of  this  movement  is 
its  simplicity.  Having  no  organization,  or  offi- 
cers to  support,  no  annual  dues  to  collect,  and 
no  complicated  machinery  to  operate,  the  move- 
ment can  be  used  by  any  existing  institution 
devoted  to  the  welfare  of  young  men.  For 
many  years  every  thoughtful  minister  has  felt 
special  responsibility  for  the  boys  under  his 
care,  but  has  been  at  a  loss  to  know  how  best 
to  discharge  it.  It  will  be  a  relief  and  great 
gain  to  the  cause,  when  ministers,  teachers,  and 
leaders  of  boys,  discover  that  their  equipment 
for  this  service  is  easy  to  acquire,  and  that  the 
best  use  that  can  be  made  of  such  machinery,  is 
to  dispense  with  it. 

In  order  to  avoid  the  weakness  of  too  much 
machinery,  it  is  well  to  remember  the  good- 
natured,  but  well-deserved,  criticism  of  Louis 
Agassiz.  Dr.  Hale  reports  him  as  saying  that 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  95 

when  he  first  came  to  America,  one  of  the  amaz- 
ing things  which  he  found  here  was,  "  that  no 
set  of  men  could  get  together  to  do  anything, 
though  there  were  but  five  of  them,  unless  they 
first  drew  up  a  constitution."  If  ten  botanists 
met  in  a  hotel  in  Switzerland  to  hear  a  paper, 
they  would  sit  down  and  hear  it.  But  if  nine 
botanists  here  meet  for  the  same  purpose,  they 
have  to  spend  the  first  day  in  forming  an  organ- 
ization, then  in  appointing  a  committee  to  draw 
a  constitution,  then  in  correcting  the  draft  made 
by  them,  then  in  appointing  a  committee  to  nomi- 
nate officers,  and  then  in  choosing  a  president, 
vice-president,  two  secretaries,  and  a  treasurer. 
This  takes  all  the  first  day.  If  any  of  these 
people  are  fools  enough,  or  wise  enough  ("  per- 
sistent "  is  the  modern  word) ,  to  come  a  second 
time,  all  will  be  well,  and  they  will  hear  the 
paper  on  botany.  A  right-minded  and  intelli- 
gent man,  surrounded  by  a  group  of  uninformed 
and  teachable  boys,  is  all  the  machinery  needed 
by  the  New  Chivalry  movement. 

Start  from  Where  You  Are. 

It  is  true  that  the  issues  involved  in  sex  in- 
struction are  so  profound  and  far-reaching  that 
it  is  easy  to  understand  why  teachers  have  felt 


96  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

overwhelmed  by  the  task.  It  is  of  the  first 
importance,  therefore,  that  they  should  frankly 
recognize  the  bigness  of  the  subject  and  their 
own  limitations.  Dr.  Richard  C.  Cabot  of 
Boston,  after  giving  a  course  of  lectures  on  sex, 
received  certain  written  questions,  to  which  it 
was  impossible  to  give  an  answer.  The  ques- 
tioners, he  said,  did  not  realize  that  the  diffi- 
culty in  answering  their  questions  is  the  same 
difficulty  as  that  involved  in  such  questions  as 
these :  "  What  paint  shall  I  use  for  a  ma- 
donna? "  "  What  are  the  best  words  to  use  in 
a  love  sonnet?  "  "  What  is  the  best  book  on 
being  a  millionaire?  "  "  What  kind  of  bread 
makes  you  popular  and  handsome  ?  "  From  this 
experience  Dr.  Cabot  concluded  that  every  lec- 
turer on  sex  questions  ought  to  hang  up  before 
his  audience,  a  sign  reading;  —  "This  lecture 
will  not  solve  fundamental  problems.  Seek  ye 
the  Lord." 

That  a  subject  is  difficult  is  never  a  sufficient 
reason  for  giving  it  up  in  despair,  or  a  good 
excuse  for  a  ".moral  holiday,"  but  is  rather  an 
invitation  to  be  humble-minded,  and  an  inspira- 
tion to  do  the  best  we  can  with  it.  It  is  far 
better  to  be  overwhelmed  by  a  big  subject  than 
it  is  to  overwhelm  a  little  one.  The  fact  of  sex 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  97 

is  as  complex  as  life  itself.  We  do  not  under- 
stand life,  but  we  do  not,  therefore,  refuse  to 
live ;  we  do  the  best  we  can  at  it.  Food  is  nec- 
essary to  life,  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  under- 
stand the  processes  of  digestion,  before  we  see 
the  necessity  of  eating  the  right  kind  of  food. 
We  start  with  what  knowledge  we  have. 
While  the  New  Chivalry  makes  no  attempt  to 
furnish  a  complete  solution  of  sex  problems,  its 
aim  is  clear  and  well-defined.  Its  aim  is  to  give 
to  young  men  sufficient  information  about  their 
bodies,  to  supply  them  with  efficient  motives  of 
self-control,  to  insure  them  a  fair  start,  to  set 
their  feet  on  a  firm  path,  and  to  fix  their  mental 
attitude  in  regard  to  a  question,  big  with  infinite 
possibilities  for  success  and  happiness.  I  am 
fully  persuaded  that  the  time  is  coming  when 
boys  and  girls  will  not  be  received  into  church 
membership  until  they  have  been  given  enough 
preliminary  instruction,  both  in  the  dangers  and 
the  right  uses  of  sex,  to  make  their  loyalty  to 
the  Christian  ideal  intelligent  and  practical. 

Practical  Experiments. 

Every  available  means  ought  to  be  used  to 
impress  on  a  boy's  mind  the  great  law  of 
heredity  that  "  like  produces  like,"  that  if  the 


98  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

race  is  to  be  physically,  mentally  and  morally 
fit,  the  parents  must  be  fit.  One  of  the  best 
means  to  use  is  a  series  of  simple  experiments 
conducted  by  the  boys  themselves  but  guided  by 
a  leader.  Let  them  breed  flowers,  vegetables, 
insects,  small  animals  like  guinea  pigs  or  rabbits. 
Let  them  breed  both  good  and  bad  specimens  so 
that  they  can  see  the  results  of  good  and  evil 
heredity.  If  a  boy  will  cross  a  Bantam  rooster 
and  a  Plymouth  Rock  hen,  he  will  never  forget 
the  impression  made  on  him  by  the  kind  of  little 
chickens  which  come  from  such  a  union.  An- 
other experiment  easy  to  make  is  to  breed 
albino  mice  to  gray  mice.  Albino  mice  can  be 
obtained  in  any  animal  store  and  gray  mice  can 
be  trapped  around  the  house.  Then  keep  the 
hybrid  offspring  as  well  as  the  pure  races,  pair 
them  and  study  the  offspring  —  Professor 
Davenport  observes  that  the  offspring  of  the  hy- 
brids will  be  white  and  gray  again  though  the 
parents  themselves  be  gray.  By  experiments 
like  these  a  boy  will  see  the  operation  of  the 
law  of  heredity  in  such  a  way  that  he  cannot 
forget  it.  By  comparing  results  secured  by  a 
group  of  boys  a  leader  has  an  opportunity  to 
make  a  lasting  impression.  By  such  simple  ex- 
periments a  boy  will  learn  always  to  associate 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  99 

in  his  mind  the  three  factors  in  reproduction, 
rooster,  hen  and  chickens;  bull,  cow  and  calf; 
father,  mother  and  child.     Every  child  should 
witness  such  experiments  as  these.     They  teach 
their  own  lesson  in  the  most  effective  way.     In- 
formation received  through  the  senses  is  most 
impressive  —  what    a    boy    handles    with    his 
hands  and  sees  with  his  eyes,  makes  an  impres- 
sion that  words  cannot  make  —  We  say  "  in  at 
one  ear  and  out  of  the  other,"  we  do  not  say 
"  in  at  one  eye  and  out  of  the  other."     For  this 
reason  I  lay  particular  emphasis  on  the  value  of 
these   experiments.     Miss  Laura   B.   Garrett, 
who  is  a  firm  believer  in  their  value,  reports  that 
Little  Jim,  a  street  urchin,  after  some  weeks  of 
nature  study  said,  "  it  takes  two  spots  of  life  to 
make  anything  grow,  don't  it,  huh?  "  and  then 
added,  "  and  they'd  better  both  be  pretty  good 
spots,  too,  hadn't  they,  huh?  "     This  conclusion 
is  the  heart  of  constructive  Eugenics.     Experi- 
ments, in  the  process  of  reproduction  with  plant 
and  animal,  will  help  all  boys  and  girls  to  draw 
the  same   conclusion.     Leaders   of  groups   of 
boys  could  render  a  real  service  to  each  other  if 
they  would  describe  and  report  their  experiments 
to  headquarters  so  that  all  could  have  the  benefit 
of  them. 


ioo          THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

Marriage  and  the  Home. 

As  the  boy  gets  older  the  instruction  ought 
to  deal  with  questions  of  marriage  and  the 
home,  including  the  choice  of  a  wife,  the  re- 
sponsibilities involved,  and  the  financial  require- 
ments. He  should  be  encouraged  to  undergo 
temporary  hardship  to  establish  a  home  with  a 
modest  outfit,  and  secure  all  the  ethical  and 
social  advantages  of  family  life.  The  far 
reaching  importance  of  these  questions  becomes 
apparent  when  we  remember  that  within  a 
century  the  average  age  at  which  men  are 
married  for  the  first  time  has  changed  from 
twenty-two  to  twenty-seven  years;  when  we  no- 
tice also  that  there  are  to-day  in  the  United 
States  over  5,000,000  marriageable  men  who 
have  not  assumed  the  responsibilities  and  joys 
of  married  life,  and  when  we  accept  the  truth 
of  Dr.  Gulick's  statement,  "  we  believe  that 
the  core  of  race  betterment  consists  in  more  and 
better  homes."  Three  small  popular  books 
which  would  help  to  guide  the  instruction  on 
these  larger  home  questions  are  Carlton's  "  One 
Way  Out";  Goss's  "  Husband,  Wife  and 
Home  "  and  Cock's  "  Engagement  and  Mar- 
riage." 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY          101 

The  Art  of  Living. 

While  only  a  few  meetings  for  private  in- 
struction in  social  hygiene  are  necessary,  yet 
they  are  of  the  highest  possible  importance. 
Next  in  importance  to  a  young  man's  rela- 
tion to  God  is  his  relation  to  a  woman.  It 
involves  personal,  social  and  ethical  conse- 
quences of  untold  significance.  To  carefully 
instruct  our  boys  in  the  art  of  arithmetic  and 
neglect  to  instruct  them  in  the  art  of  living  is  a 
curious  illustration  of  our  strange  lack  of  bal- 
ance, and  of  a  total  misunderstanding  of  the 
relative  values  of  things.  Happily  we  have  be- 
come ashamed  of  our  neglect.  We  are  coming 
to  agree  with  Lincoln  that,  "  It  is  better  to  make 
a  good  life  than  a  good  living."  The  New 
Chivalry  aims  to  stimulate  instruction  in  the 
highest  relationship  of  life. 

The  Religion  of  Sex. 

It  is  wisdom,  therefore,  to  avoid  an  exag- 
gerated emphasis  by  giving  sex  instruction  its 
normal  setting,  as  one  among  several  factors  in 
the  art  of  living.  No  sex  instruction  can  be 
either  scientific  or  effective  unless  it  aims  to  lead 
a  boy  to  think  not  only  with  his  head,  but  with 


102          THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

his  heart.  We  must  never  forget  Lowell's  dis- 
tinction that  the  statements,  "  Two  and  two 
make  four,"  and  "  The  pure  in  heart  shall  see 
God,"  are  not  received  on  the  same  terms. 
Sex  instruction  involves  something  more  than 
and  different  from  biology.  It  must  deal  not 
only  with  the  facts  of  the  body,  but  the  ideals 
of  the  heart.  When  we  deal  with  ideals  we 
are  dealing  with  religion.  Eugenics  can  dis- 
pense with  religion  only  at  great  peril.  Facts 
of  biology  are  not  enough.  Ethical  prudential 
rules  are  not  enough.  By  religion  I  mean  the 
interior  purpose,  motive,  emotion  which  shall 
control  conduct.  If  such  a  real  religion,  un- 
sectarian  and  universal,  cannot  be  treated  in 
Public  Schools,  then  they  are  not  qualified  to 
give  sex  instruction.  It  will  have  to  be  given 
by  churches  and  Sunday  Schools.  It  is  useless 
to  tell  a  boy  what  the  danger  is  unless  we  equip 
him  to  overcome  the  danger.  The  chief  end 
of  education  is  not  to  secure  knowledge,  but 
equipment  for  life.  The  only  force  which  can 
control  a  wrong  emotion  is  a  right  emotion. 
The  New  Chivalry  aims  to  cultivate  in  a  boy 
the  right  emotion,  so  that  he  may  be  safely 
trusted  in  the  temptations  he  is  sure  to  meet. 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY          103 

It  aims  to  supply  him  with  a  standard  of  con- 
duct to  carry  with  him  wherever  he  goes. 

Positive  Eugenics. 

The  silence  of  the  past  has  gone  to  an  un- 
reasonable extreme.  Our  present  danger  is 
doubtless  to  swing  like  a  pendulum  to  the  other 
extreme,  and  destroy  that  fine  delicacy  which 
befits  all  high  and  sacred  subjects.  Our  great 
need  is  a  balanced  course  of  action.  Have  we 
not  dwelt  long  enough  on  negative  Eugenics, 
which  centers  our  attention  on  sexual  abuses 
and  racial  poisons?  Is  it  not  wise  now  to  turn 
to  positive  Eugenics,  with  which  to  build  a  nor- 
mal and  healthy  human  life?  It  is  wise  to 
face  facts  as  they  are,  but  the  true  principle  of 
all  reform  is  to  replace  an  ugly  fact  by  putting 
a  beautiful  one  in  its  place.  Would  it  not  be 
wise  to  talk  less  of  sex  hygiene  and  more  of  race 
betterment?  If  we  center  our  attention  more 
on  little  children,  rather  than  on  the  means 
and  mechanism  by  which  children  are  born,  it 
will  give  us  a  truer  perspective;  it  will  put  sex 
facts  in  their  normal  setting;  it  will  avoid  an 
exaggerated  emphasis  and  a  morbid  imagina- 
tion which  comes  from  too  much  thinking 


104          THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

about  them ;  it  will  constitute  also  the  strongest 
appeal  for  clean  living.  What  a  man  will  not 
do  for  his  own  sake,  he  will  gladly  do  for  the 
sake  of  his  own  child.  The  heart  of  chivalry 
is  unselfish  thought  of  others.  It  is  always  a 
great  gain  in  any  line  of  activity  to  get  a  big 
and  worthy  objective  and  then  to  keep  it  stead- 
ily in  view.  The  true  objective  in  all  sex 
instruction  is  race  betterment,  a  more  virile 
country,  more  and  better  homes,  a  new  and 
practical  spirit  of  Chivalry. 


SIZE  AND  FORM  OF  THE  NEW 
CHIVALRY  MEDAL  OF  HONOR 


APPENDICES 

I  "  THE  NAME  OF  OLD  GLORY  " 

II  A  CLASSIFIED  LIST  OF  BOOKS 

III  BOOKS  FOR  GENERAL  READING 

IV  BOOKS  OF  ROMANCE 

V    How  TO  BECOME  A  KNIGHT 

VI    THE  NEW  JERSEY  SOCIAL  HYGIENE 
ASSOCIATION 


APPENDIX  I 
THE  NAME  OF  OLD  GLORY* 

BY   JAMES   WHITCOMB   RILEY 

I 

Old  Glory!  say,  who, 

By  the  ships  and  the  crew, 

And   the  long,   blended   ranks  of  the   Gray  and   the 

Blue  — 

Who  gave  you,  Old  Glory,  the  name  that  you  bear 
With  such  pride  everywhere, 
As  you  cast  yourself  free  to  the  rapturous  air, 
And  leap  out  full  length,  as  we're  wanting  you  to  ?  — 
Who  gave  you  that  name,  with  the  ring  of  the  same, 
And  the  honor  and  fame  so  becoming  to  you? 
Your  stripes  stroked  in  ripples  of  white  and  of  red, 
With  your  stars  at  their  glittering  best  overhead  — 
By  day  or  by  night 
Their  delightfulest  light 

Laughing  down  from  their  little  square  heaven  of  blue ! 
Who  gave  you  the  name  of  Old  Glory  —  say,  who  — 
Who  gave  you  the  name  of  Old  Glory? 

The  old  banner  Ujted,  and  faltering  then 
In  vague  lisps  and  whispers  fell  silent  again. 

*  From  Home  Folks,  by  James  Whitcomb  Riley 
Used   by    special    permission    of    the    publishers 
The  Bobbs-Merrill   Company 
107 


io8          THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

ii 

Old  Glory, —  speak  out !     We  are  asking  about 
How  you  happened  to  "  favor  "  a  name,  so  to  say, 
That  sounds  so  familiar  and  careless  and  gay, 
As  we  cheer  it,  and  shout  in  our  wild,  breezy  way  — 
We  —  the  crowd,  every  man  of  us,  calling  you  that  — 
We,  Tom,  Dick  and  Harry,  each  swinging  his  hat 
And  hurrahing  "  Old  Glory!  "  like  you  were  our  kin, 
When  —  Lord !  —  we  all  know  we're  as  common  as 

sin! 

And  yet  it  just  seems  like  you  humor  us  all 
And  waft  us  your  thanks,  as  we  hail  you  and  fall 
Into  line,  with  you  over  us,  waving  us  on 
Where  our  glorified,  sanctified  betters  have  gone. 
And  this  is  the  reason  we're  wanting  to  know 
(And  we're  wanting  it  so! 

Where  our  own  fathers  went  we  are  willing  to  go) 
Who  gave  you  the  name  of  Old  Glory  —  O-ho !  — 
Who  gave  you  the  name  of  Old  Glory  ? 

The  old  flag  unfurled  with  a  billowy  thrill 

For  an  instant;  then  wistfully  sighed  and  was  still. 

Ill 

Old  Glory:  the  story  we're  wanting  to  hear 

Is  what  the  plain  facts  of  your  christening  were, — 

For  your  name  —  just  to  hear  it, 

Repeat  it  and  cheer  it,  's  a  tang  to  the  spirit 

As  salt  as  a  tear: 

And  seeing  you  fly,  and  the  boys  marching  by, 

There's  a  shout  in  the  throat  and  a  blur  in  the  eye, 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY          109 

And  an  aching  to  live  for  you  always  —  or  die, 
If,  dying,  we  still  keep  you  waving  on  high. 
And  so,  by  our  love 
For  you,  floating  above, 

And  the  scars  of  all  wars  and  the  sorrows  thereof, 
Who  gave  you  the  name  of  Old  Glory,  and  why 
Are  we  thrilled  at  the  name  of  Old  Glory? 

Then  the  old  banner  leaped,  like  a  sail  in  the  blast, 
And  fluttered  an  audible  answer  at  last. 


IV 

And  it  spake,  with  a  shake  of  the  voice,  and  it  said : 
"  By  the  driven  snow-white  and  the  living  blood-red 
Of  my  bars,  and  their  haven  of  stars  overhead  — 
By  the  symbol  conjoined  of  them  all,  skyward  cast, 
As  I  float  from  the  steeple  or  flap  on  the  mast, 
Or  droop  o'er  the  sod  where  the  long  grasses  nod, — 
My  name  is  as  old  as  the  glory  of  God. 

...  So  I  came  by  the  name  of  Old  Glory." 


APPENDIX  II 
CLASSIFIED  LIST  OF  BOOKS 

The  following  list  of  books  is  recommended  by  M. 
J.  Exner,  M.D.  It  is  one  of  the  best  brief  classified 
list  of  books  on  this  subject  with  which  I  am  ac- 
quainted. 

I.      FOR   WORKERS   WITH    BOYS   AND   MEN. 

"  Christianity  and  Sex  Problems,"  by  Northcote. 
"  Problems  of  Sex,"  by  Prof.  J.  Arthur  Thompson. 
"  The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets,"  by  Jane 
Addams. 

II.      FOR   PARENTS   AND   TEACHERS. 

"Training  the  Young  in  Laws  of  Sex,"  by  Hon.  E. 
Lyttleton. 

"How  Shall  I  Tell  My  Child?"  by  Mrs.  Wood- 
Allen  Chapman. 

"  The  Renewal  of  Life,"  by  Margaret  W.  Morley. 

"  The  Boy  Problem,"  by  The  Society  of  Sanitary  and 
Moral  Prophylaxis. 

III.   FOR  BOYS  FROM  TEN  TO  FOURTEEN. 

"  Life's  Beginnings,"  by  Dr.  W.  S.  Hall. 

"  How  My  Uncle  the  Doctor  Instructed  Me  in  Sex 

Matters,"  by  The  Society  of  Sanitary  and  Moral 

Prophylaxis. 

no 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY          in 

IV.      FOR   BOYS   FROM   THIRTEEN  TO   SIXTEEN. 

"  From  Youth  into  Manhood,"  by  Dr.  W.  S.  Hall. 
"  Developing  into  Manhood,"  by  Dr.  W.  S.  Hall. 
"  Almost  a  Man,"  by  Mary  Wood  Allen. 
"  Truths,"  by  E.  B.  Lowry. 

V.      FOR   YOUNG   MEN. 

"  Reproduction  and  Sexual  Hygiene,"  by  Dr.  W.  S. 
Hall. 

"  Instead  of  Wild  Oats,"  by  Dr.  W.  S.  Hall. 

"  The  Strength  of  Being  Clean,"  by  David  Starr  Jor- 
dan. 

"  Health  and  Hygiene  of  Sex,"  The  Society  of  Sani- 
tary and  Moral  Prophylaxis. 

"  Eugenics  and  Racial  Poisons,"  by  The  Society  of 
Sanitary  and  Moral  Prophylaxis. 

"  Sexual  Hygiene,"  by  The  Health  Education  League. 


APPENDIX  III 
BOOKS  FOR  GENERAL  READING 

Fourteen  men  and  women,  who  had  large  experience 
in  sex  education,  carefully  examined  a  list  of  150  books 
on  the  subject,  and  selected  from  it  those  they  thought 
best  fitted  for  the  open  shelves  of  libraries.  Some 
books  received  unanimous  approval  and  all  of  them  at 
least  six  votes.  The  books  thus  selected  are  as  fol- 
lows,— 
"A  New  Conscience  and  an  Ancient  Evil,"  by  Jane 

Addams. 
"  The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets,"  by  Jane 

Addams. 
"  Sex  Instruction  as  a  Phase  of  Social  Education,"  by 

Maurice  Bigelow. 

"  Training  of  the  Human  Plant,"  by  Luther  Burbank. 
"  Conservation  of  the  Affections,"  by  Richard  C.  Cabot. 
"How  Shall   I   Tell  My  Child?"  by  Rose  Wood- 
Allen  Chapman. 

"  Engagement  and  Marriage,"  by  Orrin  G.  Cocks. 
"  Heredity  in  Relation  to  Eugenics,"  by  C.  B.  Daven- 
port. 

"  Eugenics,"  by  C.  B.  Davenport. 
"  The  Task  of  Social  Hygiene,"  by  Havelock  Ellis. 
"  A  Physician's  Answer,"  by  M.  J.  Exner. 
"  Marriage  and  tlie  Sex  Problem,"  by  F.  W.  Foerster. 
"  Essays  in  Eugenics,"  by  Francis  Galton. 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY          113 

"  The  Kallikak  Family,"  by  H.  H.  Goddard. 

"  From  Youth  Into  Manhood,"  by  W.  S.  Hall. 

"  Life's  Problems,"  by  W.  S.  Hall. 

"  Youth,"  by  G.  S.  Hall. 

"  A  Plea  for  the  Younger  Generation,"  by  Cosmo 
Hamilton. 

"  The  Blindness  of  Virtue,"  by  Cosmo  Hamilton. 

"  Education  with  Reference  to  Sex,"  by  Chas.  R.  Hen- 
derson. 

"  Heredity  of  Richard  Roe,"  by  David  Starr  Jordan. 

"  Century  of  the  Child,"  by  Ellen  Key. 

"  Love  and  Marriage,"  by  Ellen  Key. 

"  Training  of  the  Young  in  the  Laws  of  Sex,"  by  E. 
Lyttleton. 

"  Parenthood  and  Race  Culture,"  by  C.  W.  Saleeby. 

"  Three  Gifts  of  Life,"  by  Nellie  M.  Smith. 

"  The  Problem  of  Sex,"  by  Thompson  and  Geddes. 

"  Plant  and  Animal  Children,"  by  Ellen  Torelle. 

"  Sex  Education,"  by  Ira  S.  Wile. 

"  Education  in  Sexual  Physiology  and  Hygiene,"  by 
Philip  Zenner. 


APPENDIX  IV 
BOOKS  OF  ROMANCE 

It  is  an  axiom  which  needs  no  proof  fhat  the  ex- 
pulsive power  of  a  new  affection  is  the  only  power 
strong  enough  to  produce  permanently  good  results  in 
any  moral  reform.  In  order  therefore  that  young  men 
may  be  reminded  not  to  dwell  too  long  on  the  negative 
and  dangerous  side  of  sex  problems,  we  add  a  third  list 
of  books  which  portray  the  beautiful,  romantic  and 
spiritual  possibilities  of  the  sex  impulse.  They  are  de- 
signed to  hang  helpful  pictures  on  the  walls  of  a  young 
man's  imagination.  Sixty  of  the  books  here  suggested 
are  not  only  among  the  best,  but  are  known  from  ac- 
tual experience  to  have  the  power  of  reaching  young 
men  and  women.  The  Newark  Public  Library  buys 
more  copies  of  them  and  lends  them  far  more  fre- 
quently than  any  other  novels. 

"  Pride  and  Prejudice,"  Austen. 
"  Sense  and  Sensibility,"  Austen. 
"  Cousin  Pons,"  Balzac. 
"  Eugenie  Grandet,"  Balzac. 
"  The  Little  Minister,"  Barrie. 
"  Sentimental  Tommy,"  Barrie. 
"  By  Right  of  Purchase,"  Bendloss. 
"  The  Book  of  Ruth,"  From  the  Bible. 
"  The  Song  of  Solomon,"  From  the  Bible. 
114 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY         115 

"  Lorna  Doone,"  Blackmore. 
"Jane  Eyre,"  Bronte. 
"  By  the  Fireside,"  Robert  Browning. 
"  Sonnets  from  the  Portuguese,"  Mrs.  Browning. 
"  The  Last  Days  of  Pompeii,"  Bulwer-Lytton. 
"  Rienzi,"  Bulwer-Lytton. 
N  "  The  Lass  o'  Lowrie's,"  Burnett. 
"  T.  Tembarom,"  Burnett. 
"  Coniston,"  Churchill. 
"  The  Sky  Pilot,"  Connor. 
"  The  New  Life,"  Dante. 
"  David  Copperfield,"  Dickens. 
"  Nicholas  Nickleby,"  Dickens. 
"  Our  Mutual  Friend,"  Dickens. 
"  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities,"  Dickens. 
"  Adam  Bede,"  Eliot. 
"  Middlemarch,"  Eliot. 
"  The  Mill  on  the  Floss,"  Eliot. 
"  Romola,"  Eliot. 

"  The  Honorable  Peter  Sterling,"  Ford. 
"  Captain  of  the  Gray  Horse  Troop,"  Garland. 
"  The  Glory  of  the  Conquered,"  Glaspell. 
"  Unleavened  Bread,"  Grant. 
"  The  Scarlet  Letter,"  Hawthorne. 
"  The  Prisoner  of  Zenda,"  Hope. 
"  A  Modern  Instance,"  Howells. 
"  Les  Miserables,"  Hugo. 
"  The  Rise  of  Silas  Lapham,"  Howells. 
"  To  Have  and  to  Hold,"  Johnston. 
"  Hypatia,"  Kingsley. 
"Westward  HO!"  Kingsley. 


n6          THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

"  St.  Cuthbert's,"  Knowles. 

"  Robert  Falconer,"  Macdonald. 

"  Dream  Life,"  Marvel. 

"  Reveries  of  a  Bachelor,"  Marvel. 

"  Diana  of  the  Crossways,"  Meredith. 

"  The  Egoist,"  Meredith. 

"  The  Ordeal  of  Richard  Feverel,"  Meredith. 

"  With  Edged  Tools,"  Merriman. 

"  Memories,"  Muller. 

"  A  Noble  Life,"  Mulock. 

"  John  Halifax,  Gentleman,"  Mulock. 

"  The  Scarlet  Pimpernel,"  Baroness  Orczy. 

"  The  Seats  of  the  Mighty,"  Parker. 

"The  Harvester,"  Porter. 

"  The  Cloister  and  the  Hearth,"  Reade. 

"  Guy  Mannering,"  Scott. 

"  The  Heart  of  Mid-Lothian,"  Scott. 

"  Kenilworth,"  Scott. 

"  Quentin  Durward,"  Scott.  % 

"  The  Divine  Fire,"  Sinclair. 

"  Kidnapped,"  Stevenson. 

"  The  Master  of  Ballantrae,"  Stevenson. 

"  The  Gentleman  from  Indiana,"  Tarkington. 

"  Idyls  of  the  King,"  Tennyson. 

"  The  Princess,"  Tennyson. 

"  Henry  Esmond,"  Thackeray. 

"  The  Newcomes,"  Thackeray. 

"  Pendennis,"  Thackeray. 

"  Vanity  Fair,"  Thackeray. 

"  Fathers  and  Sons,"  Turgenief. 

"  A  Gentleman  of  France,"  Weyman. 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY          117 

"  Under  the  Red  Rose,"  Weyman. 

"  Golden  Gossip,"  Whitney. 

"  The  Virginian,"  Wister. 

"  The  Winning  of  Barbara  Worth,"  Wright. 

"  Their  Yesterdays,"  Wright. 

"  The  Eyes  of  the  World,"  Wright. 


APPENDIX  V 
HOW  TO  BECOME  A  KNIGHT 

A  man  joins  the  New  Chivalry  movement  by  mak- 
ing a  declaration  of  principles.  He  is  asked  to  sign 
it  in  duplicate  and  mail  one  card,  together  with  one 
dollar  and  a  half,  to  The  New  Jersey  Social  Hygiene 
Association,  Madison  Building,  Montclair,  New  Jer- 
sey. In  return  for  the  card  and  money  he  will  receive 
the  emblem  of  the  New  Chivalry  in  bronze,  and  a 
copy  of  this  book  for  his  use  in  winning  a  comrade  for 
the  cause.  Copies  of  the  book,  apart  from  the  medal, 
can  be  had  for  fifty  cents,  either  from  Headquarters, 
or  from  the  Publishers,  George  H.  Doran  Company, 
38  West  32nd  Street,  New  York.  The  medal  of 
honor  is  not  for  sale  at  all  and  can  be  secured 
only  by  those  who  sign  the  Declaration  of  Princi- 
ples. 

Although  it  is  better  for  each  gne  to  have  his  own 
book,  yet  he  can  secure  the  medal  alone  (at  a  cost  of 
$1.00)  without  the  book,  if  he  so  desires.  One  book, 
in  the  hands  of  a  leader,  can  be  used  to  serve  several 
young  men.  If  one  acquires  sufficient  information, 
from  a  borrowed  book,  to  enable  him  to  sign  the 
Declaration  of  Principles  intelligently,  and  explain  its 
meaning  to  a  comrade,  he  can  get  the  medal  without 
buying  a  copy  of  the  book  for  himself.  The  matter 
of  the  cost  then  stands  thus :  —  Medal  without  book, 
1x8 


THE  NEW  CHIVALRY          119 

$1.00;  book  without  medal,  50  cents;  both  medal  and 
book,  $1.50.  In  the  production  of  the  medal  and  the 
book,  I  have  assumed  that  it  isn't  the  amount  one  pays 
for  a  thing,  but  what  one  gets  for  the  amount  he  pays, 
which  is  our  true  guiding  principle,  and  therefore  qual- 
ity, not  cheapness,  has  been  a  prime  consideration. 
The  charge  made  merely  covers  expenses.  To  secure 
Knights  for  the  cause  is  the  real  aim  of  the  move- 
ment. Cards  for  enlistment  will  be  furnished  free,  in 
any  quantity,  to  those  who  desire  to  secure  recruits. 

(The  form  of  card  used) 

THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

A   DECLARATION    OF   PRINCIPLES 

As  a  Knight  of  the  New  Chivalry,  I  hereby  declare 
my  loyalty  to  the  following  principles,  and  my  pur- 
pose to  follow  them,  God  helping  me:  (i)  To  a 
personal  observance  of  the  single  moral  standard  for 
both  sexes;  (2)  To  seek  information  from  right  sources 
concerning  the  high  value  of  the  fact  of  sex  and  the 
danger  of  its  abuse;  (3)  To  marry  no  woman  until 
I  am  assured  of  my  physical  fitness  for  marriage;  (4) 
To  observe  the  laws  of  heredity  in  the  divine  function 
of  parenthood  for  the  sake  of  building  a  better  race; 
(5)  To  use  every  legitimate  means  for  the  suppression 
of  the  traffic  in  the  bodies  and  souls  of  women;  (6) 
To  cast  my  vote  and  influence  in  favor  of  all  laws 
looking  towards  the  final  abolition  of  commercialized 
vice;  (7)  To  assist  in  relieving  economic  pressure  as 
a  source  of  prostitution;  (8)  To  make  known  my 
loyalty  to  the  New  Chivalry  and  create  sentiment  in 


120          THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

its  behalf  by  using  its  medal  of  honor;  (9)  And  strive 
to  persuade  at  least  one  comrade  to  enter  the  same 
Christian  Knighthood. 

Signed , 

Date 

Motto : 
"  March  apart,  strike  together." 

(Reverse  side  of  the  card) 

KNIGHTS  OF  THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

Name 

A  ddress 

Age Occupation 

Church  member? Denomination? 

Who  or  what  influenced  you  to  join  the  New  Chivalry 
movement  ? 


INFORMATION 

Sign  in  duplicate  and  mail  one  card  and  $1.50  to  The 
New  Jersey  Social  Hygiene  Association,  Madison  Building, 
Montclair,  N.  J.,  for  which  you  will  receive  the  Medal  of 
Honor  in  bronze,  and  a  copy  of  "  The  New  Chivalry "  by 
Henry  E.  Jackson.  If  you  desire  the  Medal  of  Honor  in  sil- 
ver, send  $1.75;  if  in  gold,  $14.50.  Copies  of  the  book  apart 
from  the  medal  can  be  had  for  fifty  cents  either  from  Head- 
quarters or  from  the  Publishers,  George  H.  Doran  Company, 
38  West  32nd  Street,  New  York.  The  Medal  of  Honor  is 
not  for  sale  at  any  price.  It  can  be  had  without  the  book 
for  $1.00,  but  it  can  be  secured  only  by  those  signing  the 
Declaration  of  Principles. 

(Over) 


APPENDIX  VI 

THE  NEW  CHIVALRY  MOVEMENT 

is  promoted  by 

THE  NEW  JERSEY  SOCIAL  HYGIENE 
ASSOCIATION 

ADDRESS THE    MADISON    BUILDING, 

MONTCLAIR,    NEW   JERSEY 

President  —  REV.  HENRY  E.  JACKSON 
Secretary  —  H.  A.  STROHMEYER 

Executive  Committee 

Mr.  Emerson  P.  Harris  Dr.  H.  Paul  Douglass 

Dr.  Elizabeth  Mercelis  Mrs.  Hugh  Black 

Mr.  Robert  J.  Halpin  Mrs.  W.  T.  Ropes 

Mrs.  N.  H.  Patterson  Dr.  Thomas  Travis 

Mr.  Frank  T.  Gray  Mrs.  Grover  T.  Smith 

Mr.  Herbert  L.  Connelly  Rev.  Edgar  S.  Wiers 

Mr.   Lawrence   Chamber-  Mrs.  F.  Gordon  Smith 

lain  Mr.  Arthur  L.  Peal 

Mrs.  E.  W.  Goldschmidt  Mrs.  Robert  H.  Dodd 

Dr.  Morgan  Willcox  Ayres  Mr.  Edwin  S.  Ives 

Mr.  Charles  G.  Phillips  Dr.  Miriam  B.  Kennedy 

Miss  H.  A.  Guerber  Prof.  Will  S.  Monroe 

The  New  Jersey  Society  is  a  member  of  "  The  Amer- 
ican Social  Hygiene  Association  "  of  which  Dr.  Charles 

121 


122          THE  NEW  CHIVALRY 

W.  Eliot  is  president.     The  official  statement  of  its 
purposes,  made  by  Dr.  Eliot,  is  as  follows, — 

PURPOSES 

11  The  purposes  of  this  Association  shall  be  to  acquire 
and  diffuse  knowledge  of  the  established  principles  and 
practices  and  of  any  new  methods  which  promote,  or 
give  assurance  of  promoting,  social  health;  to  advo- 
cate the  highest  standards  of  private  and  public  moral- 
ity; to  suppress  commercialized  vice;  to  organize  the 
defense  of  the  community  by  every  available  means, 
educational,  sanitary,  or  legislative,  against  the  diseases 
of  vice ;  to  conduct  on  request  inquiries  into  the  present 
condition  of  prostitution  and  the  venereal  diseases  in 
American  towns  and  cities;  and  to  secure  mutual  ac- 
quaintance and  sympathy  and  cooperation  among  the 
local  societies  for  these  or  similar  purposes." 


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